Restaurant Says It’s Got a Right to Stay Open, Could Block or Delay Demolition of Noroton Heights Shopping Center

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

US Sen Murphy Visits Noroton Heights Train Station, Supports Renovations

Proposed Noroton Shopping Center Replacement Project: Maps & Renderings

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

Two BIG Proposed Projects Would Change the Face of Downtown, Noroton Heights

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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.

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.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy visited Noroton Heights Railroad Station on Tuesday to learn about town officials’ hopes to replace much of it at about the same time that the Noroton Heights business district is rebuilt.

First Selectman Jayme Stevenson gave Murphy a brief tour of the north side of the station, accompanied by state Sen. Bob Duff and state Rep. Terri Wood. All said they’d like to see state and federal money used to help reconstruct the station. Stevenson said the town was willing to chip in if there was a partnership between other levels of government and some of the developers who want to replace much of the commercial district. Possible improvements

The plexiglas shelter at the station needs to be expanded or replaced with a structure that can hold many more commuters on cold winter mornings, Stevenson said. She told Murphy that a complete redesign “of the station building” would be a good idea.

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.

« 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. _____________________________________