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Cheshire retail project hearing delayed(New Haven Register (New Haven, CT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 22--CHESHIRE -- It will probably be next summer at the earliest before the Massachusetts developer that has proposed building 146 condominium units and 500,000 square feet of retail space near Interstate 691 goes before municipal planning officials for the third and final round of approvals needed for the project. W/S Development had been scheduled to go before the Planning and Zoning Commission this fall with detailed plans for The Shoppes at Cheshire. But the dramatic decline of the nation's economy has meant the developer has had to rethink its timetable for the development, a project manager for W/S Development said Friday. "We continue to hear nothing, but positive comments from retailers about this project," said Jeff Curley of W/S Development. "But we haven't been able to get the retailers to commit to the level of detail we need to have in order to bring it before the town for the final round of approvals." W/S officials met with prospective tenants for the project at the International Council for Shopping Centers spring convention in Las Vegas last May, Curley said. With the ICSC -- which is the global trade association of the shopping center industry -- scheduled to hold its national conference in New York City on Dec. 8-10, the developer will have a chance to gauge whether the interest it had in the project this spring has increased or declined. "We have retailers who are committed to the project," Curley said, although he declined to say how many or what percentage of the total square footage they represent. "My sense is they're probably not going to discuss anything in any more detail until the first or second quarter (of 2009)." With the retail landscape losing stores like Linens N' Things and Tweeter on an almost weekly basis these days and with Circuit City seeking to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it would seem like there could hardly be a worse time to be planning a retail development. But openings in two retail centers in neighboring communities in the past two months suggests that market still remains viable to some extent. North Haven Commons, a 200,000-square-foot retail center on Universal Drive, has seen a Petco and Best Buy open there since the beginning of the month. And the first store in the 335,000-square-foot Village Shops in Southington -- Target -- opened just a few miles away from where The Shoppes at Cheshire will be built if it gets through the final round of approvals. Chamber of Commerce President Sheldon Dill said that even with the delays, he is confident the project will ultimately be built. "None of us is happy about it (the delays), but I have confidence in their ability to do this," Dill said. To see more of New Haven Register, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nhregister.com. Copyright (c) 2008, New Haven Register, Conn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |