On the cusp of its grand opening, Mrs. Green’s is facing concerns from police about a lack of available customer parking in bustling downtown New Canaan.
The market, following a soft launch Thursday night, opens Friday in the former post office building at the corner of Pine and Park Streets.
The far side of the floor at Mrs. Green's during its April 17, 2014 soft launch.
Capt. Vincent DeMaio said this week that he’s discussed the problem with leadership at Mrs. Green’s. A garage underneath the store has about 30 spaces, but those likely will need to go to store employees, DeMaio said.
“They assured me that they will keep things clean and I assured them that there probably will be plenty of fistfights in the Walgreens parking lot, because that’s going to be the natural place for everyone to park, because there will be nowhere else to park,” DeMaio said at Wednesday’s Police Commission meeting, held in the police department’s training room.
Asked about the matter during the soft launch, Chris Paradissis, vice president of store operations & store merchandising for Natural Markets Food Group/Mrs. Green’s, told NewCanaanite.com that some customers likely will use the lot on the northwest corner of Park and Pine Streets, and confirmed that the underground parking is “very limited.”
Officials at Mrs. Green's told NewCanaanite.com April 18 in a public thread on Twitter—http://bit.ly/1pgLsLz—that the garage underneath pictured here is being fixed up and will be open next week for customers and shoppers.
“We are trying to work with our other neighbors as far as business leaders to see if we can get some help with the [St. Aloysius] Church or whoever else will help us, to allow not only our customers but our associates to be able to park without having to pay,” Paradissis said.
(Town officials have said the town’s chronic parking violators largely are downtown employees.)
Meanwhile, dozens of customers shopped and toured Mrs. Green’s Thursday night to get a look at the space and its offerings. It included organic foods and produce, diet-specific foods and on the far side of the floor (toward Walgreens and Grove Street) a fridge with seafood and sausage, made-to-order pizza and burger areas, salad bar, café and juice bar.
New Canaan Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tucker Murphy said New Canaan will be able to support both Mrs. Green’s as well as Walter Stewart’s, an established food market that not only has served New Canaan as a business but also supports scores of community events and organizations (and recently launched a bicycle club with New Canaan Bicycles).
Mrs. Green's New Canaan opens Friday, April 18 on the corner of Park and Pine Streets.
“One thing about this market that’s really good for New Canaan is it’s going to keep people from going down to Darien, to Whole Foods,” Murphy said. “It’s good for the town, because people will stay here. They’re going to go to Weed & Duryea before they go to Home Depot, because they’re not going to leave New Canaan. And I think Walter Stewart’s is still people’s hometown market, they’ve been going there forever and ever. I think there is room for both.”
In addition to parking, DeMaio said he raised questions about just what would happen with Mrs. Green’s customers’ food carts if they exited the store and had to walk a ways to get to their cars. Mrs. Green’s will have a “concierge service,” DeMaio said, “in which you purchase your groceries, you leave them in an area along side of it and you come and bring your car and they will load your car.”
Here’s the area we’re talking about:
Good store poor location. I feel that Walgreens parking should be for Walgreens customers only.
Uh-oh. All I can say is the parking challenges will never be as bad as at Whole Foods in Greenwich, where even with a full-time parking lot attendant, there are shouting matches over the limited parking spots.
When I found out that Mrs. Green’s was coming to town, the two questions I asked myself were, “Where will the shoppers park and what will happen with shopping carts?” Mrs. Green,s does not have the large shopping carts found in traditional stores. Rather they use the small carry baskets. Still a big concern. I parked a block away to secure a 90-minute space.
Overall, I was very impressed by how much store fit inside what once was our post office. The pre-launch party was well-attended.
I drove by Mrs Greens this evening, and the parking situation looked really bad. There were cars up and down Pine St., and Walgreen’s parking lot was full. I saw people walking over there from Mrs Green’s. They also had one of the lanes blocked on Pine, with people putting groceries into their cars. The town should never have approved this store opening in that spot w/o proper parking area. That’s already a congested intersection, with the commuters, etc. The police will have their hands full.
I had the chance to visit the market last Friday. I was impressed out how efficiently they used the floor space and the two exits. I believe it will keep some people from going to whole foods.
I do see the parking puzzle as a challenge but one solution I don’t see a focus on is moving employee parking off site. Sites on weekends would include the railroad lots both on park, and during the week the centre street lot or Church lot would make sense.
The Stewarts parking lot is also not large and works fine 90 percent of the time.
The garage below is quite convenient in bad weather if they can sort out an elevator.
In sum it’s great to see the reuse of a building that has a history and is in the center of town. If they had built new on cross or vitti street the ability to walk from cvs to this store to Starbucks all only parking one time wouldn’t be possible.
It keeps the tax dollars in town and cuts down on time on the road for residents.
Did P & Z approve this plan? And if so, what were they thinking?