NewCanaanite.com (http://nctest.proxy02.mageenet.net/tag/david-mandel)
For today’s Q&A, we interviewed David Mandel of New Canaan Cleaners, a local business that marked 30 years in February. Located on East Maple Street and offering pickup and delivery service, the cleaners is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Here’s our exchange. New Canaanite: How are you all doing at New Canaan Cleaners? David Mandel: Well we have some people we have had to lay off.
New Canaan Cleaners on Monday moved from its longtime home on Pine Street over to a newly updated space at 12 East Maple St.—a change that it’s owner said was prompted by emerging difficulties with customer parking on Pine, rising rent and the likelihood that the building will be demolished within two years. David Mandel, a partner in New Canaan Cleaners with his father Irwin since early 1990, said that after extensive remediation on the site, a new structure is planned with retail on the ground floor and apartments above. “So I had to find an intermediate place or a permanent place and we found a permanent place, and my concern was my customers because the parking was getting to be an issue with the deli right there and coffee right there and us,” Mandel said. “It was beginning to get a little crazy, the rent got very expensive and I thought it was time for a change.”
The structure at 71 Pine St. has housed a dry cleaning outfit since 1958, according to Mandel.