Newtown Loses Bid For Marcus Dairy Facility To Oxford

By John Voket

Newtown’s loss will be Oxford’s gain. The neighboring town will apparently be the site of a Marcus Dairy operations and distribution facility that earlier this year received Planning & Zoning Commission approval to develop that enterprise in Newtown.

The development, which was approved locally, would have paved the way for the regional dairy to relocate most of its nonretail operations from Danbury to an 8.6-acre site in a M-5 (Industrial) zone at 352 South Main Street in Botsford, at the Monroe town line.

After reports circulated earlier this week that the company had abandoned its plan to develop a facility in Newtown, Oxford’s economic development director told The Newtown Bee that the company was in the process of seeking wetlands and zoning approval for a site on the west side of Oxford Airport.

Herman Schuler, the Oxford official, said the applications were “in process,” and he had no doubt the approvals and subsequent development were all but assured.

“I’m not anticipating any problems with the approvals being granted,” Mr Schuler said late Wednesday. Calls from The Bee seeking comment from Marcus family members at the Danbury dairy were not immediately returned.

The Oxford representative said the site on the west side of Morse Road would afford the company easy access to Interstate 84, which is less than one mile from the planned development and in a location where numerous commercial and industrial buildings have been built during the past decade.

“We’re delighted to have them,” Mr Schuler said.

Newtown’s Community Development Director Liz Stocker said she was informed by Marcus officials earlier this week that the Newtown site was off the table.

“It’s unfortunate, but there was apparently some kind of falling out [during] negotiations for developing the site,” Ms Stocker said, adding that she had no further details.

Mr Schuler said he was told the Marcus family intends to retain the land, and its popular dairy bar off Route 7 South adjacent to the Danbury Fair Mall, and will redevelop a retail plaza on the site with the eatery and ice cream shop as the anchor. But all existing company offices and distribution operations will eventually relocate to the new plant in Oxford.

The proposed 27,488-square-foot facility will have about 5,000 square feet dedicated to office space, with the balance being reserved for maintenance, storage, and refrigerated distribution operations.

At the time of Newtown’s unanimous approval of a fast-tracked zoning application, certain unspecified issues had cropped up over Marcus Dairy’s negotiations for the site from its current owner. Andrew J. Julian of West Haven was the owner of the property at the time, according to town real estate records.

Sean Marcus, the dairy firm’s warehouse operations manager, said February 11, “We have some issues we have to get through first…We have hit some unexpected snags.

“There are some things that we are hopefully [going] to work through,” he added.

The problems did not stem from the town government, Mr Marcus stressed, noting that the firm has had no problems with how Newtown officials handled the development application.