The downtown property where a 40-room hotel has been proposed sold this month for $8.7 million, according to a property transfer recorded July 2 in the Town Clerk’s office.
Proposed elevation from Cherry Street. Specs by Windward Development https://cms3.revize.com/revize/canaan/Departments/Land%20Use/Pending%20P&Z%20Commission%20Applications/25.05.19%2039&49-51%20Locust%20Preapp%20Presentation.pdf
Already identified as the “contractor purchaser” of 39 and 49-51 Locust Ave., the new ownership company—called Two Corners LLC—is headed by New Canaan resident Elliott Siderides. He’s the founder and president of New Canaan-based Windward Development, Inc., which is behind the hotel proposal.
In appearing before the Planning & Zoning Commission in May founder and president of New Canaan-based Windward Development, Inc. alongside his two sons—John Siderides, Windward’s in-house architect, and Andrew Siderides, Windward’s head of development and construction management—Elliott Siderides detailed the proposed adaptive reuse of brick-exterior commercial buildings on Locust, including one that formerly housed the Board of Education and, temporarily, the New Canaan Police Department.
During the hearing, he said that the extended-stay portion of the hotel is designed to serve “people who are visiting their elders at Waveny for a week…people who want their own place, coming back to visit their kids for a month… business owners who may come into town for a week because of remote capabilities,” he said.
“The typical room has two bedrooms with a kitchen and a living room and/or flex rooms that can create a more expanded living situation,” Siderides told P&Z at the hearing.
He’s seeking an amendment to the New Canaan Zoning Regulations to allow for hotels in the Business C Zone via Special Permit (current Business C regulations on page 87 here). He also has referred to a “text change for Business C zone to allow building height above 30 feet and up to 4 stories.”
P&Z is expected to take up the application again at its next regular meeting.
The buildings, which sit on about one acre together, last sold for a combined $11,839,000 (October 2015), tax records show. The last owner is FJL Holdings LLC whose principal is listed in Connecticut Secretary of the State records as a Durham, N.C. man (whose initials are ‘FJL’).