The owners and managers of Jimmy’s Southside Tavern at the back of the Noroton Heights Shopping Center say the restaurant hasn’t been given an adequate offer to void its lease, and they intend to keep the place open. Without an agreement, the project potentially would be delayed past the planned demolition in October, leaving the site without many of its stores for a longer period of time than the expected two years. If the disagreement goes to court, that could also result in a delay. “Just wanted to shout out and let you know that we are not intending [to go] anywhere Sept. 1,” the restaurant said in a brief Facebook post last Monday, Aug.
Greg Palmer, co-owner of Palmer’s Market, will talk about “Noroton Heights: Past, Present and Future” at the Darien Men’s Association meeting Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017. He also is president of the Noroton Heights Shopping Center, where he is spearheading its redevelopment. _________
— an announcement from the Darien Men’s Association
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According to Palmer, the design calls for the creation of a central town square between two structures. Retail, restaurant and office space will occupy the first floor, with residential apartments on the second floor.
Greg Palmer, co-owner of Palmer’s Market, will talk about “Noroton Heights: Past, Present and Future” at the Darien Men’s Association meeting Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017. He also is president of the Noroton Heights Shopping Center, where he is spearheading its redevelopment. _________
— an announcement from the Darien Men’s Association
_________
According to Palmer, the design calls for the creation of a central town square between two structures. Retail, restaurant and office space will occupy the first floor, with residential apartments on the second floor.
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.
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. _____________________________________
See also:
TV79 video of the entire meeting
David Genovese’s entire statement to the Planning & Zoning Commission and Architectural Review Board
Picture galleries for each proposal presented below. _____________________________________
Greg Palmer, an owner of Palmer’s Market and the Noroton Heights Shopping Center, described how the present shopping center (at the west end of the commercial district) would be replaced with multi-story buildings containing stores on the ground floors, more apartments above and some underground parking. Teams for both property owners gave the first description of their development ideas at a special joint meeting of the town Planning & Zoning Commission and the Architectural Review Board on Tuesday in a jam-packed Town Hall room.
