Greenwich's Pickwick Plaza Looks To Add Large Restaurant To Complex

GREENWICH, CT — A large restaurant with both indoor and outdoor seating could be coming to Pickwick Plaza, the 280,000 square-foot, three-building office and retail complex located just off Greenwich Avenue, according to documents submitted to the town's Planning & Zoning Department.

"Pickwick Plaza has now entered into an agreement with a local restaurateur to lease the southern ground floor space of building three," said John P. Tesei, attorney for Pickwick Properties LLC, the owner of the property and the applicant.

"The lease also provides for a seasonal outdoor dining area and use of an existing storage area in level B of the parking garage. The restaurant is proposed to have 132 indoor dining seats, 10 bar seats, eight seafood counter seats, and 60 outdoor seasonal seats," Tesei added.

The restaurateur was not listed in documents submitted to the town.

Also included in documents submitted to the town was parking data. Tesei noted that during the business days in April, May, June and September of this year, there were hundreds of available parking spaces.

There is more than sufficient parking within the Pickwick Plaza garage to satisfy the regulation requirements and the practical needs of the restaurant tenant for both lunch and dinner, according to Tesei.

Pickwick Plaza was constructed in 1974 and replaced the Pickwick Arms Hotel.

Original plans for the plaza provided for a restaurant to be located on the two levels of one of the buildings, Tesei said, and a restaurant did, in fact, operate within the space for a period of years before it was ultimately turned into bank/office space.

Pickwick Plaza was the original headquarters for Xerox. Major tenants have included Deutsche Bank, Interactive Brokers, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Chase.

The plaza is approximately 96 percent occupied, Tesei said.