Developer Proposes Retail Center At Former Factory

By Andrew Gorosko

A Bridgeport developer is proposing converting a former factory on South Main Street into a small shopping center that would contain two stores, a bank, and a restaurant.

Worldwide Properties, LLC, represented by Joseph Voll, is proposing that the former Newtown Manufacturing Company factory at 255 and 259 South Main Street be converted for use as a shopping center.

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has scheduled a public hearing on Worldwide Properties’ request for a special exception to the zoning regulations for 7:30 pm on Thursday, June 2, at the town offices at 31 Peck’s Lane.

Newtown Manufacturing Company closed for business in the summer of 2000. The screw machine parts manufacturing firm was purchased by the Iseli Company and was then moved to other facilities in Terryville.

Other than some incidental uses, the South Main Street factory building has been vacant for the past five years. The World Help Foundation, a charitable organization, occupied a section of the building for a time.

The proposed shopping center would be housed in 12,320 square feet of existing enclosed space. The 10.2-acre site is located in a B-2 (Business) zone on the east side of South Main Street. The northern end of the site lies across South Main Street from the southern entrance to Sand Hill Plaza. That entrance to Sand Hill Plaza does not have a traffic signal.

According to documents on file at the town land use office, about one seventh of the site is wetlands and about one seventh of the property consists of slopes with 25 percent grades or steeper. The site contains a large pond.

The developer proposes providing parking for 124 vehicles on the property. The zoning regulations require only 82 spaces for such a commercial use.

The site would have two access points. A southern accessway would have one lane of entering traffic. A northern accessway would have three lanes of traffic, two of which would be exits and one of which would be an entryway.

As shown on a map on file at the land use office, the former factory would be converted for use as a 5,120-square-foot restaurant, and a 3,200-square-foot bank, plus two stores. One store would have 2,400 square feet of space. The other would have 1,600 square feet of floor area.

Plans call for installation of a 30,000-gallon underground water tank for firefighting use.

On May 3, the Police Commission, serving as the local traffic authority, briefly reviewed the traffic aspects of the shopping center proposal, including topics such as motorists’ sight lines.

Police Commission members are asking the developer to attend their June 7 session to explain the traffic aspects of the project to them.

Sansalvo Engineering, LLC, of Wethersfield performed a traffic study on the proposed shopping center for Worldwide Properties.

According to that report, “The proposed redevelopment…should not adversely affect the pattern, flow, intensity or character of traffic conditions in the vicinity of the site, or produce unsafe or inconvenient traffic congestion…Traffic should not be a significant issue in the redevelopment of the parcel.”

The owners of the site are listed as Edwin Weber, Jr, Marion E. Weber, William A. Watts, and Evelyn W. Watts.

On April 21, P&Z members unanimously approved another shopping center near the Newtown Manufacturing Company site. 

TP Properties, LLC, of Danbury plans to build the 68,000-square-foot Plaza South complex, including a 64,000-square-foot main building, containing several unspecified tenants, plus a 4,000-square-foot adjacent building containing a bank.

That construction is planned for 266-276 South Main Street, on the west side of that street, in the area lying between Sand Hill Plaza and Cold Spring Road. The 12.35-acre site has M-6 (Industrial) zoning. The wooded, sloped property is a former sand-and-gravel mine. The planned intersection of Plaza South’s driveway, South Main Street, and Button Shop Road would be controlled by a four-way traffic signal.

The Plaza South site lies diagonally across South Main Street from the Newtown Manufacturing Company site.

The nearby 160,000-square-foot Sand Hill Plaza, which has been in operation for about 15 years, has a Super Stop & Shop supermarket as its prime tenant.