Businesses fill town’s plazas

HAMDEN — Economic development is cruising along in town as a number of businesses are celebrating their openings while others prepare to open this summer or are steadily under way.

In the Putnam Place Shopping Center on Dixwell Avenue, residents can expect the long-vacant shopping area to be full again with the opening of Funz Trampoline park this summer, Economic and Neighborhood Development Director Dale Kroop said.

It’s moving into the space Stop & Shop left vacant several years ago. While residents have call for another grocer on that end of Dixwell, Kroop said filling the plaza with foot traffic is the best thing for the area now.

“It’s been sort of a depressing point in Hamden, but people also have to live in the era of Amazon and shopping centers all over are changing their personality,” Kroop

said.

Although residents, plaza owners and others had hoped for a grocery store to be developed at that site , Kroop said it is unlikely right now given that Hamden is competing with the entire country as national grocery store chains plan their few store developments every year.

Also in the plaza, The Porter and Chester Institute opened earlier this year, offering morning and evening classes in technical trades, but will soon be adding afternoon classes and celebrate with an official grand opening in mid-May, Kroop said. With the added classes, he said the plaza will have about 500 people coming in and out every day because of the school.

The school also took up space where the Stop & Shop vacated, converting the store to a trade school offering programs in automotive technology, practical nursing, electrical trades, HVACR (heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration) and others.

“I think Porter and Chester is a fantastic opportunity and next to it is the trampoline place that will bring hundreds of people a week to that center,” Kroop said. “With shoes on the ground, it brings a lot of people and increases possibility in the future of attracting a grocery store.”

Also in Putnam Place, CVS Pharmacy will be building a freestanding location where Little Caesars and Metro PCS used to operate. The developers will demolish the existing structure and build a new, 14,000square-foot store on the pad, he said.

Kroop said CVS is only opening a halfdozen stores in the U.S. this year and, with the completion of the Putnam Place site, Hamden will have two CVS locations. Kroop said the developers are beginning demolition soon and aiming to finish construction this year.

The three will bring Putnam Place to capacity, Kroop said.

In the center of town, Bomb, Wings and Rice Bar recently opened at 2373 Whitney Ave. across from the fire station. It specializes in fried rice bowls and chicken wings. The eatery maintains it is different from others as the wings are marinated before being fried and coated with special sauces, such as their Coca Cola flavor, “Uncle Beam” Bourbon BBQ, Jamaican Jerk and pineapple habenero.

The restaurant also offers a number of sides such as fried Brussels sprouts, sweet potato tots and Bomb stir fry veggies made up of collards, bok choy, snap peas, carrots, bell pepper, zucchini, bomb rice sauce and toasted chick peas.

Further, two new tenants — Ulta Health and Beauty Products and Orange Theory Fitness — will join The Hamden Marketplace soon, bringing the plaza to 100 percent capacity.

Ulta Health and Beauty Products, which is relocating from North Haven, will move into the former Modell’s Sporting Goods space. The building is under construction now and scheduled to open this summer.

Orange Theory Fitness will move into the last remaining space in the plaza next to Platos Closet. The fitness center will open late this year or next, Kroop said.

When Orange Theory Fitness opens in Hamden, it will become the health club chain’s 13th Connecticut location and the fourth in the New Haven area; other locations are in Milford, Guilford and Shelton.

Marketplace is at the corner of Dixwell Avenue and Skiff Street. Other current tenants include Staples, Stop and Shop, Pier One Imports and Old Navy.

Another fitness center, Phoenix Fitness at 105 Leeder Hill Drive, will celebrate its grand opening May 3.