Separate projects seek to revive 2 commercial buildings in Bristol
Contributed
The former Boston Market restaurant at 45 Farmington Ave. (Route 6) in Bristol.
Owners of two buildings that have been fully or partially vacant for some time sought approval Monday for special permits from the Bristol Zoning Commission, with the goal of revitalizing their properties.
The applicants are Forestville Properties LLC, which owns a mixed-use building at 216 Central St., which has commercial space that has been vacant for several years; and SBM Bristol LLC, which owns the former Boston Market restaurant at 45 Farmington Ave., also known as Route 6, that closed two years ago.
The commission held public hearings on the applications Monday.
Forestville Properties’ application seeks a special permit for a mixed-use development containing two non-residential units on the first floor and four dwelling units on the second floor at 216 Central St., which it acquired for $575,000 in November. A separate application seeks a special permit for parking on a separate lot under the same ownership at 15 Circle St.
According to attorney Mark Ziogas, who represents the applicant, the three existing one-bedroom apartments on the second floor at 216 Central St. are occupied. The first-floor commercial/office space formerly was home to Fletcher’s Plumbing and Heating Supply, which was dissolved in 2011.That space has been vacant since then.
Ziogas said the plan would create two additional one-bedroom units, one on the second floor and one on the first floor. The first floor would also have a separate, small office space that would be leased. Each housing unit would have approximately 450 square feet of space.
Two additional apartment units are located at 15 Circle St. The two properties share a parking lot that is also owned by Forestville Properties. While 216 does not have parking on its site, the shared parking lot has 23 spaces, which is enough for the apartments and the commercial/office businesses, Ziogas said.
He added that a nail salon that had planned to occupy the former plumbing supply company space has since found a location elsewhere, but the plan is to lease that space for a salon or similar business. Ziogas said a one-man construction management company has expressed interest in the small office space in the building.
The building at 216 Central St. was erected in 1900 and is showing its age, but Ziogas said the plan is to get the building fully occupied while making no promises about improving the worn exterior.
“We’d like to get it back up and running so it's no longer an eyesore downtown,” he said.
In order to address questions from city staff, a public hearing on the application was continued until the May 12 meeting.
The application from SBM Bristol LLC seeks approval for a special permit and site plan to create a drive-up window at the former Boston Market restaurant.
Attorney James Ziogas, who represents the applicant, said that while the owners do not yet have a tenant interested in the building, they want to create a drive-up window in order to increase interest in the site.
Installing the drive-up window would require cutting off a corner of the 2,645-square-foot building in order to create enough space for vehicles to queue up, he said.
Scott Hesketh, of East Granby-based engineering firm F.A. Hesketh & Associates, provided a traffic study that found that there is enough space in the lot to accommodate up to 14 vehicles in the drive-thru lane.
Hesketh said the traffic counts for the building would depend on the type of food outlet that leases the space. A “fast casual” restaurant, like Boston Market, would have lower traffic volume than a fast-food restaurant like a McDonald’s, while a coffee/donut shop would have even higher volume.
The commission closed the public hearing on the special permit for the drive-thru and approved the permit by a 4-0 vote with one abstention. It then voted to continue the public hearing on the site plan to May 12 in order to allow the applicant time to answer concerns raised by staff and the police department.
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