Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Many New Canaanites by now have seen a rendering of the Midcentury Modern-inspired commercial building that John and Melissa Engel have planned for the lot at 215 Elm St. The architect on the project is Westport-based Frederick William Hoag. Some time after John Engel explained what he had in mind to a University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation professor, a document that included some truly fascinating concepts came in from students (see above). The Maryland architecture program been called the only one in the nation that includes professional Masters programs and related PhD-level studies in planning, preservation and real estate development within the same school. ***

Bill Egan, the newly hired principal of New Canaan High School, has gotten into the spirit of the job very quickly: At his formal introduction at the Board of Education meeting on Monday night, board member Sheri West astutely noted, Egan was sporting a NCHS Rams tie.

News

Letter: Anyone Else Think ‘Pine Place Market’ for 75 Pine?

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Maybe it’s just me, maybe other ex-Seattle-ites that have found a home in New Canaan may agree with me. Then again, maybe some won’t. However, after reading Michael Dinan’s recent article about the future of 75 Pine Street (the former NC Cleaner’s building next to Zumbach’ss Coffee) I can’t help but think Grand Central market is the wrong theme for this development. The article instantly made me think about other “artisanal markets I’ve been to as I try to understand the developer’s vision, which I am very excited about. One market that continues to come to mind, and one that I would visit quite often when I lived in Seattle, is the world famous Pike Place Market.

Business

‘A Village Feel’: P&Z Approves Site Plan for Pine Street Market

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With its curbside plaza finished in brick paving, its open-air space and a flexible parking plan that’s designed to allow for additional outdoor seating, as needed, the artisanal foods marketplace planned for 75 Pine St. is expected to transform the street’s “auto-centric” feel into something more pedestrian-friendly, the project’s architects say. According to L. Wesley Stout, principal at New Canaan’s Wesley Stout Associates, a landscape architecture firm, an eating option of some kind drives retail business today—coffee, prepared and take-out foods, “dine-ins”—a differentiator for retailers competing against Internet shopping. “What is remaking ‘Main Streets’ is food,” Stout said Tuesday during a public hearing before the Planning & Zoning Commission. “So places like this will be a huge success, to bring people into these places rather than just maybe stopping into your shop if you’re lucky,” Stout said during the hearing, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center.

Business

Rendering of ‘Pine Street Marketplace’ Unveiled

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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.

Business

Artisanal Foods Marketplace Planned for Pine Street

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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.