New Brookfield Village tenants say they always wanted to be dentists

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – They worked together in Manhattan, have just opened a practice in the emerging Brookfield Village commercial/housing district, and both knew when they were children that they wanted to become dentists.

Dr. Adi Kedem of the Four Corners Dental Studio said, “I’m sure that every kid that had braces remembers that you had a great orthodontist and you said, ‘Hey it’s a good field to work in.’ And that’s what it was for me.”

Dr. Ivette Lora, her colleague, said, “I knew that I wanted to be a dentist. I was so interested in ortho. The interesting part was the smell [at the dentist office]. We don’t have it anymore. I really liked it.”

Lora’s grandmother was a nurse, her father is a pediatrician, one younger sister is an internal medicine physician and the other younger sister is a dentist.

In an interview with Patch.com they noted they have 2,500-square-feet in a corner of the second building at Brookfield Village. That is more than enough space for their current practices in cosmetic and esthetic dentistry. They have a dental assistant and an office manager.

Kedem, who got her dental degree from the University of Connecticut in Farmington, said they want to eventually place additional dental professionals in other parts of their office.

Lora, who earned her dental degree from the State University of Pennsylvania, said that part of the reason for choosing the 198-acre Brookfield Town Center central business district was that a “lot of ex-New Yorkers” moved to northern Fairfield County during the pandemic.

Kedem explained, “A lot of people are working from home” instead of from offices in New York City or the suburbs in Westchester County.

Advantage Commercial Realty’s George Walker, the marketing director for Brookfield Village, concurred. He said that a number of residents at Brookfield Village have moved from the New York City area.

Walker, a former Brookfield selectman, said in a phone interview with Patch.com that he expects other health-related businesses to become tenants at Brookfield Village.

“It is a pretty attractive place for them,” he remarked. “There is plenty of parking and there is good exposure from Federal Road, where the traffic count near the Four Corners intersection is now 15,000 vehicle trips a day.”

That intersection, particularly during the rush hours, experienced considerable traffic congestion prior to the opening of the nearby 2.1-mile Route 7 bypass in November 2009. There were estimates of 30,000 vehicle trips on a typical weekday and motorists complained that it was difficult to make a left-hand turn.

Municipal and state officials had lobbied for the $105 million bypass for decades, since it would make it possible to eliminate the traffic snarls and embark on the Brookfield Town Center - the traditional New England-style central business district which the town had lacked.

Walker said the traffic flow had dwindled to about 4,000 to 5,000 vehicle trips between late 2009 and the recent years before the opening of Brookfield Village

“We’re at a point where we have a steady traffic flow and it is manageable,” he explained.

Walker said that he expects the third phase at Brookfield Village will be under construction this fall with parts of it ready for occupancy by late 2023.

He said that by the end of phase three there will be a grand total of 125 apartments, most of them market-rate, along with a small number of affordable housing units that were built in phase one. The third phase also will include more commercial tenants and parking.

Kedem and Lora formally introduced themselves to the area on August 11 during a grand opening that was hosted by the Brookfield Chamber of Commerce.

Kedem, who lives in North Salem, N.Y., said that throughout her career many patients have become friends.

“You get to know them,” she explained. “You see their kids grow up.” One patient even baked pies for her.

Lora, who resides in the Sandy Hook section of Newtown, remarked, “We try to say, ‘Let’s make this social.' "

Currently the Four Corners Dental Studio is open for regular appointments on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Patients also can make appointments for a Monday or Friday. The office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.