Update: Tri-Town Plaza owner Ron Spector and the town’s Board of Selectmen have hit an impasse over a proposal asking for a three-year tax break to jump start a community market Spector wanted to open in the property.
Tri-Town Plaza — home to several shops including a busy movie theater, hair salon, martial arts studio and pizzeria — has about 98,000 square feet of open space after an Ames department store and Adams food store closed several years ago.
In July, Spector said he submitted a “fairly detailed” letter to First Selectman Paul Roy detailing a plan to spur redevelopment.
Spector’s proposal included a three-year freeze on taxes — something Spector said would allow an idea to incubate in Tri-Town Plaza.
‘Community Market’
The idea — a 2010 take on farmer’s markets.
Spector wants to carve the empty space into a series of separate fresh food stores. Booths would also be available for rent by area farmers.
“All the individual stores would be individually owned. We were going to break up the space to have a deli, a produce store, a meat market, an Italian meat store, a fish market,” Spector said. “We were also going to have an indoor dining area with some restaurants. All these individual users would provide ready-to-eat food on the premises.”
The market would have been modeled after M & M Farms of Milford and Ring Bros. Marketplace.
Spector hoped to add restaurants to the mix — a natural, since a movie theater is on the property.
To help launch the idea, Spector wants the town to freeze his assessment.
“First we wanted a fair assessment of the value of the property,” Spector said. “Beyond that, we asked for a three-year hold at fair market value so that we could have a chance to lower the operating costs and give our vendors a chance to succeed.”
The community market has been put on the back burner, Spector said, without approval for the tax freeze.
Roy said the town has not made any decision on the proposal.
“There’s nothing to report,” Roy said.
Other Plans?
Spector said he’s still trying to find an anchor tenant — not easy in today’s market.
Spector has long been at odds with Seymour over the assessment of Tri-Town Plaza. Earlier this year the town agreed to refund Spector more than $170,000 in taxes, which settled a lawsuit Spector filed over his taxes.
The hope was that the deal would end bickering and spur redevelopment.
Roy Reacts
When asked about the Tri-Town matter, Roy said the town has asked Spector several times to speak to the Board of Selectmen about what he wants at Tri-Town. Elected officials want to see the property redeveloped as much as anyone, Roy said.
“When the lawsuit was settled back in May, our original intent was to have Mr. Spector come in and let us know what his plans were for the shopping center,” Roy said.
“Everybody (on the Board of Selectmen) said they wanted to meet with him. A few people have questions. No one is going to grill him or make him feel uncomfortable. We have a few concerns and we want to deal with him directly.”
A concern — Spector’s request for a tax freeze.
“It is not something that normally gets done in Seymour,” Roy said. “That is something we would have to discuss with the Board of Selectmen.”
In an e-mail response to Roy’s comments, Spector said he has offered to meet with elected officials on an informal basis.
“It was my desire to keep political grandstanding out of the equation and to assess the level of support and address any criticism before I invested a considerable amount of time and money into the plan and presented it to the Board for approval,” he said.
What’s Next?
Earlier this month Spector said he’s had two companies look at Tri-Town in the past two months.
“There was a party that was interested in a tear down,” Spector said. “We showed the property to them several times. There was another group interested in a smaller space. We continue to market it every day.”
Part of the plaza’s problem — in the seven or so years Tri-Town has set partially empty, a number of grocery stores have opened in the lower Valley.
“It needs a grocery store as an anchor,” Spector said. “Unfortunately in the Valley grocery stores have been overdeveloped in the last five years, so we’ve been in a bind.”
Who’s Been Looking?
The Valley Indy quizzed Spector on a number of grocery chains who expressed an interest in Tri-Town.
Whole Foods: “Whole Foods cannot happen. The Valley is just not their demographic. We’ve had multiple conversations with Whole Foods. We just don’t have the population density or the income. It’s not even close.”
Trader Joe’s: “We’re on their fringe. They grow very slowly and they tend to grow in areas with a higher income profile. We have several conversations with Trader Joe’s as well, but they said we’re not in their demographic — but we’re on the cusp. We’re close. I think they would do phenomenal business.”
Stew Leonard’s: “We had conversations with them probably about four or five years ago. We just weren’t large enough to accommodate their box. It’s a big foot print. We’d love to have Stew Leonard’s. They’d have great access to Route 8.”
And what about Aldi, which owns Trader Joes? That would fit better with the perceived target demographic, and the company is expanding. Beyond the peculiar Aldi/Trader Joes, even retail giant Walmart Stores, Inc. announced earlier this month that the company increase store building in the U.S. next year, adding more smaller stores (about 30-40% of the total) which will be <30,000-square feet and will be targeted at both urban areas and small towns where the company does not presently operate, the company said. Although the valley has no shortage of Walmart locations, the biggest area of Walmart's growth has been in lower-margin supermarket and pharmacy items, which the smaller store format hopes to focus on. Mr. Spector talks a good game, and although the current retail environment makes it tougher, but has done little if anything to fill the vacancies for the past 7 years, including years in which retailers were rapidly expanding.
Traders/Aldi would be good, but why do we need him to come here to talk to us? Come on it is the 21st century! Get a big screen and a skype account! The minutes could say he was there via video teleconference. If the charter needs to be amended to allow that, then get busy and allow it. Duh, why would he want to work with this backwards town? Time to progress this little time capsule of a town.
Why don’t we get a carters, or Xmas tree shop, or payless? Or Perkins , or 99 restaurant, or kmart, or get a kohls? Or a walk-In? Or a fred’s, or a Ross, or a fabric store?
So many things we need
Who will pay for the freeze???? Spector needs to do a better job marketing the parcel and stop worrying about a freeze. The lawsuit is settled; now he wants want more??? The town would be foolish to grant the freeze.Political
grandstanding…………
First off, the Town agreed to settle the tax matter because they were unfairly seeking to collect more tax revenue from me than even their own experts could support. While I can appreciate that some believe it was a gift to me, the truth of the matter is that I was compelled to supply an interest free loan to the Town for 5 years. So I believe the characterization that Spector is back looking to suck more money from the public trough, is inaccurate and unfair.
Approximately 5 years ago I was approached by a group looking to open a produce market at Tri-Town. They had a truly wonderful concept however, they were under-capitalized. When we asked the Town for some short-term incentives to get the project off the ground, we were told, “We’re not going to give away the farm”. That project died, but if the Town could have put together some incentives, perhaps that project would have moved forward and I believe would today be yielding huge benefits to the Town. That said, a three-year “freeze” as it was intended by me, was not a freeze on paying taxes. Taxes would continue to be paid, however the Town would wait three-years before boosting the assessed valuation to account for all the capital that was poured into the project to get a new business open in Seymour. So what we are talking about is the anticipation of increased revenues, so there is no cost to the Town that must be accounted for. If the investment never happens or takes three years to occur, then what is the cost to the Town? If the estimated life of that investment is 15 years or more, then what is the benefit to the Town? If that initial investment yields more investment, then what is the benefit to the Town? Further, what is the benefit of increased jobs and long-term employment opportunities and all those other taxes that the Town would collect in the interim? While I understand the criticism, I believe that it is important to have a debate on what the goals of the Town are. In my opinion, rather than hire a full time inexperienced employee to do what I pay an experienced professional to do, perhaps the Town would do better to state that “we are business friendly” and that “if you invest now, we will wait three years to recognize that investment”. If that encourages a business to invest today or encourages a retailer to locate in Seymour, rather than Ansonia, then what is the cost and benefit? I understand that this approach may appear self-serving, but whether I or another developer can tap into the benefit will depend solely on our abiltiy to attract new business to Seymour, which ultimately benefits the tax roll.
I met last week with First Selectman Roy and Selectman Miller and was encourage by the open exchange of ideas. I offered my opinion about the best way to attract business and now they can discuss those ideas and their own with their constituents to determine how best to achieve their goals for the Town.
With regard to Aldi, we have had many conversations with them over the years, and the only way they would move forward was if they owned the property. Due to the ownership structure of Tri-Town, we were not able to give them what they needed, so it is my understanding that they are now looking to assemble land in Derby. Perhaps if incentives were on the table, the Daddios property might be a viable option for them or perhaps another property along Derby Avenue. With regard to Walmart’s new smaller format, we have also had many conversations with them over the years and it is my understanding that the smaller footprint is first slated for urban locations, with rural locations like Seymour’s, some time off. Kohls would do phenomenally at our location. So too would Price Chopper, Price Rite, Stew Leonards, Aldi, X-Mas Tree, J.C. Penney, Super Valu, TJ Maxx, Dicks, Burlington Coat, Tractor Supply, Petsmart, Best Buy, and many, many others, but thus far all have declined, numerous times.
Mr, Spector:
What part of get the placed leased don’t you understand???? How many more years will it be vacant?????Stop with the meaningless statistics,people could care less about them. What their interested in is getting that plaza
leased so people can spend their hard earned dollars in Seymour not eslewhere.
Mr, Spector:
What part of get the placed leased don’t you understand? How many more years will it be vacant?Stop with the meaningless statistics,people could care less about them. What their interested in is getting that plaza
leased so people can spend their hard earned dollars in Seymour not eslewhere.
How about an Old Fasioned Roller Skating Rink