Business

Subway on Main Street Closes After More Than 25 Years

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Subway, the national made-to-order sandwich shop that’s operated out of its Main Street location opposite Town Hall for more than 25 years, has closed its New Canaan store. A sign has appeared in its front window saying “Store closed. Reopening under new leadership.”

It isn’t clear whether or when a Subway would reopen at 64 Main St.—company officials could not be reached for comment. Subway has closed hundreds of stores nationwide, faced with a slowdown in sales. Laura Budd of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce said the organization is “certainly sorry to see Subway leave.”

“We know that it’s popular with the younger kids in town,” Budd told NewCanaanite.com.

Around Town

Fishing Derby at Mill Pond Scheduled for Saturday Morning

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New Canaan’s young anglers will descend on Mill Pond Saturday morning for one of the town’s most cherished community traditions—the annual fishing derby. Registration will start at 8:30 a.m. for the popular event—a competition for special prizes—and fishing will start at 9 a.m. The fishing derby is open to kids 15 and younger, and 10-and-unders must be accompanied by an adult.

“Personally, it is one of my favorite events because it seems to attract a lot of New Canaan families,” said Tucker Murphy, president of the Kiwanis Club of New Canaan. “It’s a lot of people that we don’t see on a regular basis that come out for it, and I love that. I love to see these kids with all of their little lines, all ready to go, we are so grateful to all of our sponsors. At 9 a.m. they’ll drop the lines in.

Business

Officials Consider Relocating New Canaan Farmers Market from Center School Lot

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With an eye on giving downtown New Canaan businesses a boost, town officials say they’re thinking about shifting the popular Farmers Market to a more central location. The idea of hosting the Saturday market in one of the lots behind Town Hall had come up about six years ago, but the prospect of an extensive capital project there helped put it on hold, according to First Selectman Rob Mallozzi. With that project finished and signals from some local merchants that they’re interested, Mallozzi said he’s ready to reopen the conversation. “I like the idea of having the Farmers Market in town and I agree absolutely that any foot traffic we can derive from having it a couple of blocks closer to town is a good thing,” he said. With approval from the town, the Farmers Market is slated to open Saturday, April 22 in its longtime location—the Center School parking lot off Maple Street.

Business

‘Skilled, Knowledgeable, Well-Connected’: Met on Youth Soccer Sidelines, Two New Canaan Women Mark One Year Since Forming Law Group

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Elizabeth DiRusso and Alexis Brooks had known each other exactly six years when, on a clear, sunny afternoon in October 2015, they met for a fateful walk on South Avenue. It was chilly, so each woman wore a fleece as they set out with their young yellow Labrador retrievers—Hadley DiRusso-Grenauer, who will turn four next month, and Ginger Brooks, now five and who had been, as a puppy, a difficult dog to leash-walk. Lawyers who graduated one decade apart from Suffolk Law School in Boston, the women had talked off and on for years about the prospect of working together one day. That day that had never materialized, understandably. DiRusso just then was 25 years into a career that had included a stint as general counsel for a multinational company that took her family from New Canaan to London from 2010 to 2013.

Business

Town Planner: New Canaan May Look at More Closely Defining Core Retail Area Downtown

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Protecting New Canaan’s core retail district may require greater flexibility in what types of businesses can occupy street-level storefronts in other areas of the downtown, officials said last week. Though non-retail uses of street-level commercial spaces are heavily restricted on parts of Main and Elm Streets now, it has become increasingly important to determine exactly what are “the proper limits of retail in town, so that we do not over-commit our zoning to acquiring retail to saturate the market,” Town Planner Steve Palmer told members of the Planning & Zoning Commission at their regular meeting. “I think there is a supply and demand, and we have too much supply,” he said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “So we have to be careful with that, too. We know where it [retail] works best, we know where it is important, so let’s focus on those areas, the outskirts areas—we have to be careful with how we do that.”

The comments come as P&Z guides a discussion with business and town officials on whether the New Canaan Zoning Regulations as regards the “Retail A” zone (in purple here) should be amended—for example, to accommodate more types of service businesses.