Energy beverage, tea store added to food roster at Brookfield Village

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – Nina Ortiz was looking for a second retail space where she could sell “Breakfast of Champions” shakes and protein iced coffee.

In 2018 she had opened Seaside Nutrition in Milford, where she lives.

What about adding a location in or near Danbury, where her business partner, Gerald Leone, resides?

They looked at retail space along Newtown Road in Danbury, near Stop & Shop and Wal-Mart.

“We felt we would have gotten lost,” Ortiz remarked. “There was a lot of commercial around us.”

The answer came a short time later during a break from a motorcycle ride to New Milford.

They stopped at Brookfield Village – which was just emerging along the northern corridor of Federal Road. At the time, there was Subway, La Piazza, Rich Farm Ice Cream, Traveling Chic Boutique and market-rate apartments above them from the first phase of the project.

No chance of getting lost there. The big box stores and furniture outlets are a few miles away along the southern corridor of Federal Road.

“Such a new thing,” said Ortiz in an interview with Patch.com about the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center central business district. “It’s pretty cool.”

“The downtown area in Norwalk was there before I was born,” said Ortiz, 40, who is a native of Connecticut’s sixth most populated city.

Brookfield didn’t even consider developing a New England-style central business district until the late 1980s under Democratic former First Selectman Ken Keller.

Until November 2009 – when the 2.1-mile Route 7 bypass opened - there were an estimated 30,000 vehicle trips a day through the Four Corners intersection of Federal Road and most of those drivers seldom stopped at the outlets which were demolished in 2016 to clear way for Brookfield Village.

Four Corners Nutrition opened in a 1,300 square-foot space in June. Ortiz’s customers are greeted near the checkout counter with signs reading “Good Vibes Only” and “Happiness Blooms From Within.”

“it’s fun, it’s energetic,” she commented regarding the atmosphere.

The menu consists of four categories - shakes, teas, specialty drinks and For The Athlete – beverages for both before and after a workout.

Ortiz said they will sponsor fitness classes and a walking club to the nearby Still River Greenway.

“Health and wellness have always been a big part of my life,” commented Ortiz, who is a personal trainer and has played softball, mostly as a catcher, since age eight. Her son, Dominick, 18, is currently a co-manager at Seaside Nutrition and her daughter, Mickela, 17, works at both locations.

As it was being conceived in the 2000s, Brookfield officials said that the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center central business district would differ from the bustling southern corridor of Federal Road, where are an estimated 70,000 daily vehicle trips near the intersection with Candlewood Lake Road, or the Danbury Fair Mall, which reportedly attracts 40 percent of its customers from outside Connecticut.

They underscored that the bulk of the customers would come from a short radius. Market rate and age-restricted housing had been built nearby even before the construction began on the first phase of Brookfield Village.

“People I have spoken with, they’re happy with this development because they don’t like going up [the southern corridor of] Federal Road because of all the traffic,” said Ortiz.

Advantage Commercial Realty’s George Walker, the marketing director for Brookfield Village, said when phase three is completed in 18 months there will be a grand total of 125 market-rate apartments.

Brookfield Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Susan Murphy noted that there is waiting list for the apartments in phase two, which opened months ago.

However, Walker, who served on the Brookfield Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance, said there are signs that Brookfield Village may become more of a destination location than municipal officials envisioned when construction began on the Route 7 bypass 15 years ago.

He said that by the end of the month there will be six food establishments there, “and they’re thriving off each other.”

Walker said in a phone interview with Patch.com that there were eight college-aged customers together from outside Brookfield on opening day in early July at SALT 2.0, which serves burritos, bowls and wraps.

Ortiz said that in less than a month, Four Corners Nutrition, which is active via the Internet, was attracting customers from Bethel and Danbury.

“Social media is a big part of business now,” she explained. “You use that correctly and more people will come in.”

In a phone interview with Patch.com, Murphy said, “[Brookfield Village] will become a hub at some point,” adding that Food Emporium, which is constructing a supermarket across the road, “will kind of round that out.”

The third streetscape segment in Brookfield Town Center is under construction and thee more phases are planned.

Neighboring municipalities – such as Danbury, New Milford and Ridgefield – have been plagued for years by inadequate parking in their New England-style central business districts.

Walker said there is “plentiful parking” at Brookfield Village, noting that there are 60 unpaved spaces behind the red building that are currently being “under-utilized.” He said those spaces would be paved during phase three, which also will feature additional parking.

Ortiz predicted that several of those spaces will be occupied by her customers.

She said that the energy beverages that she and her family have been drinking for the last “10 years” were ordered more frequently at Seaside Nutrition during the pandemic.

Ortiz exclaimed, “People became more health conscious.”

Four Corners Nutrition is open Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Monday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesday from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A formal ribbon-cutting will be held on July 13, at 5 p.m.

Resources:

https://patch.com/connecticut/...