Darien Commercial Development

Presentation of Baywater/PG Properties Downtown Development Plan on April 6

Corbin/Post Rd Redevelopment Idea Looks a Bit Less Radical in Latest Presentation

Public Meeting Thursday on Downtown Redevelopment Proposal

Federal Realty Presents Ideas to Redevelop Its Noroton Heights Property

First Peek at Redevelopment Proposed for Noroton Hgts Stop & Shop Area

Downtown Post Road Property Goes for $2.85 Million

Proposers of Corbin Dr/Post Rd Project Describe It on New Website

Proposed Noroton Shopping Center Replacement Project: Maps & Renderings

VIDEO: Watch the Full Presentations of the Downtown, Noroton Heights Redevelopment Proposals

Statement by David Genovese on His Post Rd/Corbin Dr Redevelopment Project

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Downtown Darien Redevelopment Baywater Genovese 3-19-16

On Wednesday, April 6, 2016 at 7 p.m, David Genovese, founder of Baywater Properties, will present to the public an overview of the downtown Darien redevelopment project proposed by Baywater Properties and its partner, PG Properties. A full presentation of the project will be given to attendees, with significant time available for questions and comments. The presentation takes place at Darien Library. The Baywater venture began work on acquiring the properties from Corbin Drive to the Bank of America Building, including the US Post Office at 30 Corbin Drive and 10 Corbin Drive, in 2005. ________________

Editor’s note: This is an announcement from Baywater Properties and PG Properties.

Commercial Real Estate Developer David Genovese gave a presentation to the public at Town Hall (and on TV79) Thursday evening, providing some updates on his proposal to redevelop the triangle between Corbin Drive, the Post Road and Interstate 95. The proposal doesn’t add that much more retail space to the downtown about another 20,000-square feet, Genovese said. And a new street that would run parallel to the Post Road (and that might be extended to Center Street) is something that previous government studies have suggested, he said. Genovese addressed concerns about underground parking, the addition of a five-story building to downtown, the impact on traffic, and whether the new apartments would increase the school-age population. He mentioned some small changes in the proposal and some other ways the idea might be changed before a formal proposal is presented to town land-use boards.

Darien Board of Realtors has joined with David Genovese of Baywater Properties to present a public forum about the proposed downtown redevelopment between Corbin Drive, the Post Road and Interstate 95. Titled “A New Vision for Downtown Darien,” the informational meeting takes place from 7 to 8:30 p.m., Thursday in Darien Town Hall, 2 Renshaw Road, according to a post on the Darien Board of Realtors Facebook timeline. The post continues: “You won’t want to miss this exciting presentation! RSVP today to: darienmls@optonline.net”

For more information on the proposal, click on the “tags” (words in short blue bands) at the bottom of this article, under “Filed Under.”

Part of the proposal to develop the tract where Stop & Shop and other stores now stand: One, two and three floors above a first floor of retail that would replace the supermarke’ts current building just south of West Avenue (with as many as three floors above West Avenue). That was one of many features of a “proposal” for redeveloping the 8.6-acre site covering most of the land between Edgerton Street, Heights Road and Noroton and West Avenues, owned by Federal Realty, a national real estate investment company that bought the land from Tom Golden’s estate after that developer accumulated the parcels and passed away. See also: First Peek at Redevelopment Proposed for Noroton Hgts Stop & Shop Area

Overall, Federal Realty presenters told a joint meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commission and Architectural Review Board Tuesday evening in Darien Town Hall, the developer’s goal is to create a vibrant, attractive place that people want to visit, walk around in and enjoy as well as shop in, dine and spend money. The company presented something that was at least as close to a concept as an actual plan, with many details open to changes. Instead of sketches describing what the buildings might look like, they presented — with the exception of a rendering of housing along West Avenue — pictures taken from elsewhere that were meant to suggest what they might build, or possibly even just a sense of what their buildings would feel like to look at.

The landlord that owns the buildings where Stop & Shop, Walgreens, Equinox and other nearby stores are now located wants to add about 90 apartments, more retail space, over a hundred more parking spaces and a lot of landscaping to the 8.6-acre tract. According to some documents filed with the Planning & Zonning Department, Federal Realty will present its ideas for redeveloping the site, which takes up much of downtown Noroton Heights. See also: Federal Realty Presents Ideas to Redevelop Its Noroton Heights Property

The ideas will be presented at 8 p.m. to a joint meeting (open to the public and broadcast by Darien TV79) of the Planning & Zoning Commission and Architectural Review Board in Room 206 at Town Hall. The presentation is scheduled to last until 9:15 p.m.

Here’s a first look at the proposal, presented in a few large, illustrated pages currently in a file at the Planning & Zoning Department. Pictures of other places, presumably meant to suggest the way parts of the redevelopment would look, are included along with maps of the site.

The building and land at 1090 Post Road, in the middle of a proposed downtown redevelopment project now in its early stages, has been sold to an entity connected to Baywater Properties, one of the businesses proposing the project. The Double Exposure store is now on the site of the property, sold by Paulson Properties of 146 West Rocks Road, Norwalk to Baywater 1090 BPR, LLC. The sale occurred on Aug. 12 and was filed on Aug. 13 in the Darien Town Clerk’s Office, according to that office.

The partnership proposing to replace the commercial block between the Post Road, Corbin Drive and Interstate 95 say on their new website that it should help, not hurt traffic and parking downtown. David Genovese, president of Baywater Properties (which owns the land, together with developer Penny Glassmeyer’s PG Properties), recently sent a letter to news organizations announcing the new website, www.yourdowntowndarien.com. “We hope that this site will help residents of Darien get information about our proposal with ease,” Genovese wrote in the letter. “On the site, residents can download our P&Z presentation video, as well as the presentation itself, and many videos and documents which are important to consider as it relates to parking, public space, and pedestrian flows downtown.” One part of the website has a FAQs (“frequently asked questions”) format discussing concerns about the proposal, such as traffic, parking and other issues.

The presentation on July 21 from the Palmer family’s proposed redevelopment of the west side of the Noroton business district is now available online at the Darien town government website. Darienite.com has posted the 18-page document here:

(All renderings are copyrighted by Newman Architects, PC, whether or not that shows in the screen grabs of individual pages shown here. Click on a picture for an enlarged version, or for an even bigger version, go to the town government website.)

You can now watch the presentations on the redevelopment proposals for large parts of downtown Darien and the Noroton Heights shopping district on TV79 online and on cable television. TV79 announced the availability of the videos Thursday morning. The on-demand Vimeo version is on this Web page. The video shows the full special meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commission, which met jointly with the Architectural Review Board. The meeting lasted just over 2 1/2 hours.

This is the statement David Genovese, CEO of Baywater Properties, gave before the Planning & Zoning Commission and Architectural Review Board on Tuesday before describing his development proposal (main article here) for the area bounded by the Post Road, Corbin Drive and Interstate 95. Eight highlights from his remarks:

“Our goal for tonight, however, is a simple one. We want to start a dialogue with you and the people of Darien, and we want to get your feedback on our ideas for what we believe is a catalyst for taking downtown Darien to the next level.” “When I started working with a group of volunteers on the Darien Revitalization effort in 2003 with the objective improving downtown, we would hear often from residential brokers in Darien about how they would avoid driving through downtown when touring homes with potential homebuyers who were considering Darien as well as New Canaan.” “We will be looking at creating affordable units for sale and/or for rent, and we are also researching the possibility of creating a building which could provide supportive housing for adults with special needs.” “The demographic trends in Darien are incredible, but unsustainable. Between 1990 and 2010, the population of the town increased by something like 5 percent, while the school age population increased by 80 percent.”

« August 2022 »

Downtown Darien and the business district of Noroton Heights would be massively changed with proposed redevelopment projects of a type not seen since the highway was built through town, according to descriptions presented Tuesday by the owners. David Genovese, principal with Baywater Properties, which already owns a large part of downtown, and his architects described how the block between Corbin Drive, the Post Road and Interstate 95 would be torn down and replaced with somewhat more retail space, new apartment buildings and a five-floor office building. _____________________________________