Businesses open during ‘slowest time of the year’

— The winter is traditionally slow for business start ups, but the city appears to be bucking that trend, according to Julie Nash, Milford’s economic and community development director.

Nash said the snow and cold temperatures can slow new business movement — and the pandemic is not helping, either — forcing owners to eye grand openings in the spring and summer months.

But some businesses chosen to make the leap in the midst of the cold.

One of those businesses is School of Rock, owners of which plan to open a location on Cherry Street in late February or early March.

“The decision to open a location in Milford was based on the fact that there are a lot of young families there, and it is a beautiful and friendly community,” said Kurt Koehler, School of Rock owner. “Our perception is that it’s an up and coming community, and it is growing.

“We also look at demographics before deciding to open a location,” said Koehler, adding that School of Rock has other locations in Fairfield, Madison and Ridgefield. “There are multiple elementary schools, middle schools and high schools in Milford. So the population in Milford lends itself to this type of business.”

Heidi Brown, general manager of the Milford location, said they have seen a lot of interest and had many early sign-ups.

“We’ve been happy to see that people have definitely been interested in signing themselves or their kids up because we do offer lessons for preschool all the way up to adults,” she said. “It’s been cool to see the interest and have people calling, and it’s reassuring that when we do open, we already have a fair amount of students.”

Koehler said the Milford location is about 35,000 square feet, larger than the operation’s other locations.

“It allows us to have nine-lesson rooms, two of which are drum lesson rooms and another two are rehearsal rooms, a large student lounge, a dedicated room for younger kids called Little Wings and a staff lounge,” he said.

Brown said because they have a larger space, they can “spread out a little more,” but they are still going to take all the COVID precautions necessary to keep their staff and stuspace dents safe.

“We are going to be sanitizing and being very careful about cleaning,” said Brown. “Other than that, we are going to be following the current guidelines going forward.”

These openings follow other recent openings in the city, including the Black Business Alliance, a statewide membership organization that acts as a sort of chamber of commerce, service support, networking platform and advocacy group for any Black-owned businesses.

The BBA took over a large space at the Connecticut Post Mall, and not only does it act as a sort of chamber, but its location also incluces some retail offerings.

The open space at the mall includes modernist tables and chairs for meetings and gatherings, workMILFORD for the staff near the back wall, and along one side, racks and shelves of clothing and accessories that Tia Woods and other vendors will sell through the alliance. Altogether, the idea is to create a gathering space, she said.

The Whale Tea, originally from Nanjing, Singapore, recently opened its location in Milford, adding to its already existing locations in Stamford, Fairfield and New Haven. The bubble tea business held its grand opening on Sunday, Jan.1. On the day it opened, the shop received only five orders. But the next day, a Monday, sales quadrupled to 20 orders, and has been increasing.

Nash said other businesses opening their doors soon are Pokemoto, Crumbl, Axe-Throwing, F45, GoHealth Urgent Care and Genesis.

Contributed photo The School of Rock Milford site will be larger than their other locations at 35,000 square feet. The new business is set to open in late February or early March.