The former Big Y space in Ansonia has been vacant for years.
ANSONIA – Some five years after Big Y packed up its Ansonia store and moved to Derby, Mayor David Cassetti said on Wednesday that the owner of the Ansonia Shopping Center isn’t doing enough to fill the now mostly vacant plaza.
“We’ve had many different stores wanting to go in there, and he’s never got it going. I don’t know why,” Cassetti said in a phone call to The Valley Indy.
Cassetti’s words come after the Bob’s Stores in the plaza announced it was closing on July 14 – and an appraisal report shows the landlord, Alan Schwartz of Glen Equities, passed on a Hobby Lobby store moving in, according to Cassetti.
“We just keep getting the run-around by the owner of the Big Y (plaza) every time he comes here and tells us what he’s doing, and he’s just not pulling the trigger on any of these,” Cassetti said.
Now, city officials are exploring new “incentives” to get the storefronts filled, according to city corporation counsel John Marini.
The move comes less than a week after Stop & Shop announced it is closing its grocery store on Division Street by the end of the year. The Cassetti administration said they don’t want to see another former grocery store sit empty with no end in sight.
The ‘Incentives’
So, among the ‘get tough’ incentives: a fine on commercial properties that sit vacant for too long, Marini said. He said that, although the Big Y plaza owner had been in touch with the city regularly, the city may take a carrot-and-stick approach to the empty stores.
“Allowing strategically positioned properties to remain vacant for years ultimately hurts the overall business community, and therefore the overall tax base,” Marini wrote in an email to The Valley Indy. “The city will seek to strike a balance between providing powerful incentives for development on one hand, and ensuring land owners are accountable for their properties, on the other.”
Cassetti said he envisions charging up to double property taxes on the large commercial real estate owners who leave their storefronts empty for six months. Marini said it is possible such a measure could be implemented via a city ordinance in the form of fines.
The Valley Indy reached Schwartz, the owner of the plaza, by phone, but he declined to comment. An email sent to Schwartz with further questions was not returned by 4 p.m. July 17.
Cassetti has also floated the idea of buying the Ansonia Shopping Center, saying that the city could do a better job of filling the plaza than its owner.
“We’ve got other developers that I deal with that have come to me and said, ‘I have a grocer that I could bring in right away, a reputable one,’” Cassetti said. “But he won’t deal with them, Mr. Schwartz. So maybe we take it and sell it, or do something. We’ve got to do something.”
Municipalities elsewhere have taken over commercial properties.
In Thornton, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, the city took over a long vacant (and contaminated) 15-acre shopping center through eminent domain in 2021. The city eventually paid about $3 million to the owner and is in the process of demolishing and cleaning up the property. Click here to read more from the Northglenn Thornton Sentinel.
The City of Middletown, Ohio recently announced it was spending $10 million to buy the 32-acre Towne Mall, according to the Journal-News. According to the article, part of the motivation to purchase the property was to keep the old-style shopping mall from sitting vacant for years.
A local politician there pointed out that demolition costs are expensive, and that particular project involved potential underground contamination from an old Sears. Generally speaking, the government can access federal and state grant money to clean up toxic properties with greater ease than private companies.
Reaction
State Rep. Kara Rochelle, who represents Ansonia and part of Derby, said that the state also has resources to help get the plaza filled.
She pointed to the JobsCT program, a program she cosponsored that started in 2022, which offers grants and tax incentives to businesses operating in distressed municipalities.
She also pointed out that much of Ansonia – including the Big Y plaza – is located in an opportunity zone, which offers further incentives.
Cassetti is challenging Rochelle for her seat in the state House of Representatives. The election is in November.
Rochelle questioned the timing of Cassetti’s comments given how long Big Y has been empty.
“I can say as a lawmaker that has six years of work on the Commerce Committee that a knee-jerk reaction to double business taxes sounds more like a campaign ploy than a sophisticated strategy,” Rochelle wrote in a message to The Valley Indy. “It seems to have mixed results in other large cities and a Harvard Business School study doesn’t recommend the idea. The real question is why wasn’t this looked into while River Plaza on Olson Drive has sat mostly empty for years, and Big Y left years ago?”
Cassetti said he was spurred to action by the closure announcements at Bob’s Stores and then Stop & Shop.
“It’s not a campaign ploy, and it has nothing to do with an election year,” Cassetti said. “It’s unfortunate that these stores moved out in an election year.”
Rochelle said she is consulting with the state Office of Legislative Research on measures that could incentivize new business owners to move in. The Harvard Business School study she referenced can be read in full here.
Traditional Grocers Are Hurting
Jeff Wells is the lead editor of Grocery Dive, a publication that covers the retail food industry.
He said traditional grocers such as Big Y and Stop & Shop have a hard time competing in the modern market. Consumers are paying close attention to prices, and the traditional grocers are having a hard time matching lower prices.
“It’s been really difficult for these stores because of high prices and inflation. People have been switching up their shopping routines. They’re visiting Walmart more. They’re shopping more at Costco and BJ’s, and some of the discount grocers such as Aldi,” he said.
An Aldi store opened on Pershing Drive in Derby in 2014 across from an existing ShopRite and within walking distance of the Division Street Stop & Shop in Ansonia.
“People can get groceries at dollar stores now. There are a lot more value priced grocery options available now, and that has hit these traditional grocers pretty hard. They struggle to compete on price,” Wells said.
Stop & Shop is owned by Ahold Delhaize, a multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands. In the U.S., the company also owns grocery chains Food Lion, Hannaford and Giant.
“Stop & Shop for a while now, has been an underperformer. It’s just lagged behind the others,” Wells said, talking about the company’s grocery store holdings.
Wells said that Stop & Shop several years back announced they would be remodeling their stores. COVID-19 slowed the project down, but the chain did not remodel as many stores as first anticipated, Wells said.
