The Ansonia Planning and Zoning Commission has given its blessing to a developer’s plans to convert second-floor office space to apartments on Main Street.
A limited liability company controlled by Jerry Nocerino bought six properties along the northern end of Main Street in downtown Ansonia for $1.4 million in February.
The buildings contain several storefronts and apartments already, but Nocerino’s son, Jeremy, asked the commission’s permission to convert 10 offices on the second floor of 76 – 88 Main St. into five one-bedroom and one two-bedroom apartments.
In July the PZC denied the proposal because of a lack of information regarding parking, but approved the project at its regular meeting Aug. 25.
The building requires 108 parking spaces and has 55 available, Nocerino said, so the commission voted to allow residents and visitors to the building to use 53 spaces in the city-owned parking lot on West Main Street, which was just rehabbed.
Nocerino told the PZC last month that besides a plan to eventually renovate the facades of the buildings, he intends to keep retail space along the first floors.
The six buildings from 36 to 88 Main St. count the Ansonia Housing Authority and Massimino’s Pizza among their tenants.
The buildings used to be owned by the Main Street Development Corp., which fell on hard times after the economy went south.
A company owned by Jerry Nocerino company acquired the buildings through a foreclosure sale organized by Naugatuck Savings Bank, the company through which Main Street Development Corp. mortgaged the property, according to land records in City Hall.
Jerry Nocerino owns a number of commercial properties in the Valley, including Ansonia Commons at the intersection of Main and Bridge streets, as well as the site of the former Valley Bowl in Derby, where a new Panera Bread and Aldi grocery store are in the works.
According to the minutes of the May 19 Ansonia Planning and Zoning meeting, Nocerino’s son, Jeremy, described the proposed units as “above average affordable apartments,” and told the PZC that he’d seek rent of $900 per month for the 400-square-foot one-bedroom units and $1,200 per month for the two-bedroom apartment, which would be 652 square feet.
Jeremy Nocerino told the PZC Aug. 25 that the “affordable” label does not denote “any particular program or anything. We’re just going to try to build above-average units … but we’re going to try to keep costs down.”
He listed hardwood floors, high ceilings, and tall windows among the apartments’ selling points.
Nocerino’s company has already renovated several apartments that already existed inside the other buildings bought in February.
