Business

Property Owner Seeks To Establish Pet Store with Grooming Services at Grove and Elm

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The owner of the vacant commercial building at Grove and Elm Streets is seeking to amend the New Canaan Zoning Regulations so that a new pet store planned for the space can also offer grooming services. The 2007-built glass-and-brick exterior building at 272 Elm St. has been vacant since TD Bank closed its branch there nearly four years ago. The property’s owner, V.M.I. Inc. managing principal Frank Vuoso, in 2023 proposed installing a high-end car dealership there. During a special meeting in December, the Planning & Zoning Commission approved part of a new plan from Vuoso, to change the property’s use from a bank to a retail pet store.

Business

‘A Family-Friendly, Community-Oriented Business’: Carpet Trends Is Coming to Main Street

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A family-owned, multi-generational provider of residential and commercial flooring and related services is coming to downtown New Canaan. Carpet Trends will open a satellite showroom at 97 Main St. this spring, according to owner Tyler Rogers, whose grandfather launched the business in 1956 in Rye, N.Y.

“We do some work in New Canaan and the surrounding area now, and we thought given the similarities between Rye and New Canaan, the location that [Realtor] Betsy [DiMatteo] helped me find, there was a lot of things that lined up, and it’s easy for us to service this area from our existing warehouse with our existing labor with our existing stock. We’re known for the stock that we carry, which is discounted high-end to low-end products that we buy in bulk. So when designers are shopping and they’re looking at the high-end products or they’re looking for whatever products, they come to our stock wall and see if they can get a good discount for a high-quality product because we have it in stock.

Badass Bagels

‘Badass Bagels’ Is Coming to Burtis Avenue

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A favorite of the popular New Canaan Farmers Market is setting up a permanent location downtown. Badass Bagels—a sourdough bagel maker whose extras include Hot Honey Pistachio Cream Cheese, Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookies, Sourdough Pizza Dough and Honey Nut Squash Soup—is opening at 5 Burtis Ave., according to the company’s social media and a sign in the window. The bagels are “entirely different from a standard yeast bagel,” the result of a four-day dough-making process, according to the Badass Bagels website. “They are made with our very own sourdough starter,” the website says. “The starter was created during the spring of 2020 during the many weeks of being home and baking and cooking anything and everything.

Business

Dry Cleaning Drop-Off, Tailoring Services Planned for Former ‘Maddie’s’ Space on Pine Street

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The owner of a recently vacated commercial space on Pine Street is seeking permission to use it as a drop-off for dry cleaning and tailoring services. Maddie’s, a burger and sandwich shop at 78 Pine St., closed in December after 18 months in business. According to a site plan application submitted to Planning & Zoning, property owner Moon Chun will not place dry cleaning machines in the new space. (Family business Sanda’s Cleaners already occupies the eastern half of the building, though the application doesn’t specify whether or how the new business will work with the existing one.)

Under the New Canaan Zoning Regulations, businesses in the Business A zone follow the same rules for non-office use as the Business B zone. Site plan approval is required for a change of use for “specialty retail shops” as well as for “[l]aundries or dry cleaners, provided chemical dry cleaning is done off premises” (see pages 82 and 85 here). 

Chun said in the application: “The space will be open to the public for retail use.

Business

‘No. 299’ Moving Into Bigger Space on Main Street

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A popular retailer in downtown New Canaan will soon expand its offerings in larger commercial space. The store, No. 299—whose tagline is “curated goods for home and her”—is moving from 100 to 114 Main St. on or perhaps before Feb. 1, according to owner Jackie Fucigna.