FAIRFIELD – Five downtown shops on Unquowa Road have until April 15 to vacate their storefronts as their landlord moves ahead with plans to turn the property into a 50-unit apartment building that will include some affordable units.
Las Vetas Lounge coffee shop, the Fairfield Barber Shop, Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe, Tenth of June for the holidays and Nancy Galasso Interiors have to find new locations by April. They recently all received a letter to vacate by April 5 from Dr. Lee Forest, who owns the buildings on Unquowa Road.
Dr. Forest, a Stratford family doctor doing business as 15 Unquowa Road LLC, worked out an agreement last year with the Town of Fairfield and its Plan and Zoning Commission to allow for the complex to be built with at least two street level retail shops. Forest had sued the town after the PZC denied the application.
“They have been talking about this since 2016,” said Glen Colello, who co-owns Catch a Healthy Habit with his wife Lisa Storch. “We knew when there were four family members who got the property in inheritance. Once the one (the doctor) bought the others and that happened, we knew this was his project.”
The couple has been searching for a new location in downtown Fairfield with the idea of keeping any work stoppage to a minimum.
“We would like to find a nice spot, which would be a permanent thing,” Colello said. “There’s openings all over town. My wife is talking with landlords. As for when we move, we understand that he has applied for a demolition permit (and that it could be soon).”
The Fairfield Barber Shop, which has been in that location through several owners for 80 years, has already found a new spot picked out, according to owner Marco DiVincenzo.
“We’ve been talking with the people at Hansen’s Flowers and we’re going to be moving over there,” he said about the former Brush & Blush Salon site at 1040 Post Road. “They have an existing spot there built out for a salon. That will happen in March, April.”
DiVincenzo is disappointed that he has to move his business, which is in a building with so much history.
“They (my customers) are surprised that an apartment is going to be here,” he said. “They can’t see the vision. They are afraid of the extra traffic, lack of parking, what it’s going to do to the area. They have fewer spots than people who will live in the apartments.
“It’s a shame because there are very little people who are excited another apartment…and we’re losing all this history here.”
The apartment project was finally greenlighted in 2024 when a judge ruled in favor of the developer in 2024, requiring conditions to be met for final approval. The town Plan and Zoning Commission initially rejected the plan in 2022 due to flooding, parking, and density concerns.
The project aims to build a 5-story, 57,230-square-foot building featuring 50 residential units, eight of which will be deemed affordable according to state statute. The original plan called for 63 units, with 19 marked as affordable. The project is filed by 15 Unquowa Road LLC under Connecticut’s 8-30 g statute, which allows developers to bypass local zoning if they include affordable units.
As part of the settlement, two spaces totaling 2,250 square feet on the ground floor facing the street will be used for commercial space.
For Colello and Storch, whose café has been located on Unquowa Road since 2009, they can’t afford to wait around for the developer to build out the retail space.
“We know the state passed 8-30 g and the town fought against it,” Colello said. “And the way I understand it there is not meant to be retail with 8-30 g and the town fought, fought, fought against the project and finally settled. Now there’s going to be two retail places on the lower level. It would be a two-year buildout. So, we are not going to hang around for that.”
Lisa Storch has been meeting regularly with town Community & Economic Development Director Mark Barnhart to seek out new space.
“Lisa has had many conversations with Mark and yesterday (Monday), who has been letting us know about openings before they become open, stuff like that,” he added.
