It has been a long time coming

By Scott Benjamin

The late 1980s: First Selectman Ken Keller introduces the concept of the Brookfield Town Center.

2008: "Brookfield needs to have a conversation: Are we going to develop the Four Corners or are we going to continue to rely as much as we have on residential taxes? Bill Davidson, a year before be was initially elected as first selectman.

BROOKFIELD --"People are excited about having another supermarket, which will be closer to their home," says municipal Community Development Specialist Greg Dembowski regarding Food Emporium, which will be located smack, dab in the middle of Brookfield Town Center.

A nearby Dunkin Donuts patron promptly expresses her enthusiasm to Dembowski that there will be a supermarket on the northern tier of Federal Road.

The construction crews are there nearly every day, sometimes on the weekends as the structure takes shape. It should open in the summer 2024.

However, Food Emporium will be just one component in Emporium Plaza. The project will include five smaller commercial spaces and 40, one-bedroom apartments.

Additionally, there reportedly will be 40 public parking spaces which can help accommodate the people using the Still River Greenway. Dembowski noted it has become the second most popular trail in Connecticut since it opened in November 2016.

Davidson once said that the greenway was needed since Brookfield doesn't have many sidewalks and bicyclists are in search of safe places to ride.

Dembowski is sitting just a softball pitch away from the third phase of streetscape in the 198-acre New England-style central business district. That streetscape was finished last year. A fourth phase should be completed in 2024 traveling from the Agora restaurant to Newbury Village, just north of the Four Corners.

He says the comment he frequently gets from residents is: "Why has it taken so long?"

Dembowski said often it takes two years from the time the state approves a streetscape to when the constructions starts.

1998: U.S. Rep. Jim Maloney (D-5) of Danbury and federal Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater hold a news conference at the Mobil gas station near the Four Corners intersection of Federal Road to discuss the 2.1-mile, $105 million Route 7 bypass.

Federal money had been approved to pay for 80 percent of the project, which would help relieve traffic congestion at the Four Corners. Maloney noted that there were an estimated 30,000 vehicle trips through that area and about 90 percent of it was through traffic. Negotiating a left turn was more difficult than hitting a shot put into the bleachers at Tropicana Field with a WIFFLE ball bat.

However, it would be 11 years before the bypass opened. Republican former First Selectman Bill Tinsley, who was in his first bid for the office, said in the fall 2009 that the development of the Brookfield Town Center was essential, since he feared that otherwise the area would become ghost town.

Now the traffic flow is about 15,000 vehicle trips a day, according to former Other Selectman George Walker, the marketing director for Brookfield Village, a mixed-use cornerstone piece in the Brookfield Town Center.

Enough vehicles to keep the area humming but not so much to deter the foot traffic.

2007: Economic Development Commission Chairman Hal Kurfehs says many of the customers at Brookfield Town Center will come from within a short radius.

Remarked Dembowski, "A recent analysis from an independent consultant shows the majority of travelers to Brookfield Town Center come from the greater Danbury area but a surprising percentage are from further out of the area and surrounding states. This is supported by HART [Housatonic Area Regional Transit] who has reported to me that bus ridership through the Federal Rd corridor is the highest of any route in their service area. These riders travel to the TCD [Town Center District] to shop, for employment, visit family and friends and to live. Out of state visits are particularly high on weekends."

Walker said businesses at Brookfield Village are getting a considerable number of customers from out of town.

2007: At the news conference for the start of construction of the Route 7 bypass, then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R-Brookfield) said that the Brookfield Town Center could possibly resemble Evergreen Walk, the regional destination in South Windsor that has such brand names as Apple and L.L. Bean.

Seven years ago Dembowski became a part-time municipal project manager to help foster the revitalization of the emerging small business area. He became the Community Development Specialist in 2020.

His resume features project management positions with Union Carbide and the YMCA of Western Connecticut.

Dembowski started working for the town around the same time that demolition began to clear the way for Brookfield Village, a cornerstone in the town center.

Walker said that the third phase of Brookfield Village should be completed in early 2024. He said that at that point the three phases combined will have 140 market-rate apartments. He noted there have been waiting lists for apartments at the first two buildings. Retail owners from out of town have found Brookfield Village to be a attractive location.

"We have a nice mix," Dembowski added regarding the commercial projects.

A night earlier he had enjoyed wine and Hors d'oeuvres during a Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting near the intersection of Federal and Laurel Hill roads for Connecticut Breast Imaging, which provides breast care services.

"That is something that is rather needed in the community," Dembowski commented in an interview with Patch.com.

For years residents have expressed concern about the growing number of apartments. However, Dembowski said that there are young professionals, for example, who can't afford a house. Plus without the apartments you wouldn't have the commercial development.

Aside from Brookfield Village, progress has been made over the recent months on turning the former dry-cleaners at 20 Station Road from a browns field site into 54 to 59 apartments. The project was approved at a town meeting in March and since then the town has acquired a wetlands permit.

1998: The owners and tenants at Candlebrook Village at 777 Federal Road ask the Brookfield Zoning Commission to allow for the posting of directional signs to make the businesses more visible and reduce confusion for first-time customers trying to find their location. The request is approved.

About 20 years later there was a proposal to turn 777 Federal Road into a multi-story housing complex. That didn't come for fruition, partly because of concerns about public safety in the event of a fire and the appropriateness of such a large structure in a suburban town of 17,500 people.

Dembowski said as far as he knows it is not currently occupied. He recalled that a generation ago it was a "robust commercial area" that featured the popular Panchos & Gringos restaurant, an ice cream store and a Dunkin Donuts shop

He said he is not sure what the next step will be at that site.

Resources:
Interview with Greg Dembowski, Patch.com, Thursday, May 18, 2023.

Greg Dembowski, e-mail statement, Friday, May 26, 2023.

Phone interview with George Walker, Patch.com, Tuesday, May 23, 2023.

https://www.newstimes.com/news...

The Brookfield Journal: 1998, 2007, 2008.

https://charterrealty.com/prop...