Photo by Eugene Driscoll
Alderman Tony Mammone (leaning forward, bearded).
ANSONIA — The city’s economic development director shared some info Tuesday about what’s happening with the former Big Y space downtown.
A morsel or two of info emerged during Tuesday’s Ansonia Board of Aldermen meeting after Alderman Tony Mammone asked Ansonia Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley if there was anything she “could share publicly about the former Big Y space?”
Big Y closed its store in Ansonia and moved to a redeveloped space at 656 New Haven Ave. in Derby. The move left the Ansonia shopping center on Main Street without an anchor, and the downtown area without a grocery store, though a Stop & Shop and a ShopRite are not terribly far away. Ansonia resident William Luneski noted Target, across from the old Big Y, has expanded its grocery options.
Responding to Mammone’s question, O’Malley said she recently provided the plaza owner with information about residential units that could be built in downtown Ansonia, such as two office buildings on Main Street on either side of Kingston Street that are to be converted into apartments.
The owner is AGS Ansonia LLC, a New York City company.
“I can tell you that I just recently provided the owner of that space with an additional letter of a breakdown of the residential units that are going to come online downtown, and what that’s going to look like, and what the time frame is,” O’Malley said.
She also said she provided the shopping plaza’s owner with an additional “support letter.”
“He has been in discussion with two tenants, one more so than the other,” O’Malley said. “At this point that’s about all I can say to you. He (the plaza owner) understands the importance of having a grocery-type tenant in that plaza.”
O’Malley said the owner wants to get the space filled so he does not lose money.
