Did You Hear … ?

Congratulations to the South School Chess Club, which won first place at the Fairfield County Scholastic Team Chess Championship. The Nov. 8 tournament featured competitors from nine K-5 Fairfield County elementary schools. The South School team was led by Joseph Ho, Michael Telesco, Henry Chandra and Luke Gencarelli, who each won three games out of four. Strong contributors included Jenna Ho and Luke Van Dussen. This tournament also brought out young talents Quinn Kilkenny, Yuna Ho and Emily Telesco who were each playing in their first or second professional tournament.

Steel Frame of ‘Pine Street Concessions’ To Rise This Month, Early-2016 Opening Now Planned

The foundation for the planned Pine Street Concessions marketplace will be poured next week and the steel skeleton of the structure will start to take shape in the next few weeks, according to its owner. An original fall opening for the Grand Central-style marketplace has been pushed back to early 2016 due to a more involved environmental cleanup of the site at 75 Pine St. than what had been expected, according to Peter Lane of NCLC. Four primary vendors will occupy space inside the 3,000-square-foot metal, framed open structure is to resemble an old railroad building, Lane said: Two food vendors, a sweets and ice cream vendor, and a vendor of beer, wine and spirits. “We are looking for gourmet food you can eat on premise,” he told NewCanaanite.com.

Rendering of ‘Pine Street Marketplace’ Unveiled

A newly released, high-level rendering of a planned artisanal marketplace at 75 Pine St. shows a spacious, 1.5-story structure set back from the road in an airy, open space that includes outdoor seating. The mock-up is early yet and details such as windows may change, though the concept of a Grand Central marketplace-style concessioner with a butcher, baker and cheese-maker on site remains part of the plan, according to Peter Lane of NCLC, owner of the property that for decades had been a dry cleaners. “We’re going to look to see who comes our way and fill the bays inside,” Lane said. “We’d love to engineer a good mix that makes a great experience when you come into the space for gourmet-to-go, maybe some prepared meats and cheeses and breads.

Artisanal Foods Marketplace Planned for Pine Street

The owner of a half-acre Pine Street lot on which a dry cleaning business stood for more than 50 years is razing the original structure and creating a new retail marketplace there that will offer gourmet, specialty food items.

Peter Lane of NCLC said 75 Pine St., formerly site of New Canaan Cleaners, by this fall will feature a new building in which more than one artisan has space to create and sell freshly made edibles under a “Grand Central marketplace”-style concessioner model. “We are going bring in food purveyors and create a little marketplace out of it, so we’re excited about it,” said Peter Lane of NCLC. “We would love to get a butcher, a baker and a cheese maker—a marketplace of artisans creating specialty foods. It [the space] is kind of unique because each entity will have its own kitchen, cook its own food and then have counter space out front and share some common space. There will be a little seating and a little fireplace inside, so it’s going to be a kind of event space too.”

An application to demolish the 2,352-square-foot, 57-year-old cleaners building was filed Jan.

New Grove Street Space To Feature Central Fitness Area, Health Services in Studios and Suites

The widely anticipated and complete renovation at 45 Grove St.—the walk-in level from the covered lot at the building that houses the New Canaan Racquet Club—will include a centrally located, open fitness area surrounded by 11 studios and suites where local experts will provide health- and wellness-related services, one of the property’s owners said. Nearly all the walls have come down in the 16,000-square-foot space, which is being transformed into a comprehensive and varied wellness center where, within months, New Canaanites will be able to avail themselves of services offered on an á la carte basis, said Peter Lane of NCLC. “I think what is unique about it is that the center of the facility and surrounding areas will be for New Canaan, and it’s a non-membership facility, so we hope that a lot more people will be able to access their health and wellness here as opposed to a traditional gym where you have your membership and you’re locked in,” Lane said Wednesday morning, standing near what will become an open fitness area in the heart of the yet-unnamed facility. “There is much more flexibility here to come in and get what you want, whether it’s yoga, which is great, or if you want to just go see one of the wellness professionals, that’s terrific, or come in and get on a cardio machine by the day—you are welcome.”

Though information is not yet available about which local professionals will work out of the space, they will include non-medical services and many experts in areas such as alternative and integrated therapies, Lane said. Together, those experts will create a “dynamic and synergistic” community, he said.