Rowingfitness chain warms up for local launch
STAMFORD — A longidle downtown storefront is to set to be revitalized with the arrival of a quickly growing rowingworkout franchise.
Row House has posted “coming soon” signs in the front window of 5 Broad St., advertising its plan to open at the former site of Wayne’s Steakhouse. The address has stood vacant since Wayne’s closed in early 2017, after a sixmonth run.
A message left for Row House was not immediately returned.
Established in New York City in 2014, Row House was “born from the idea that rowing is the most efficient, lowimpact, high energy, fullbody workout for any fitness level that brings the comradery (sic) and drive fostered by the sport of rowing to each class,” according to its website.
Row House says it has hundreds of locations in development across the country, with studios in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
In April, it opened its first Connecticut center at 380 Post Road in Westport.
The storefront at 5 Broad St. belongs to a block that intersects the thriving restaurant row on lower Summer Street and stands a few hundred yards from another bustling dining corridor on Bedford Street.
But the block has struggled to hang on to new arrivals. A Brazilian steakhouse, Rodizio Grill, closed in 2014 after a short stint at 5 Broad. The same space briefly housed a Houlihan’s restaurant, which shuttered in 2009, six months after it opened.
Yards away, 59 Broad has stood empty for more than five years. It has housed a gym, an Italian restaurant and, most recently, a post office.
Officials at the University of Connecticut considered that property as a possible site for student housing, but they decided to develop the university’s first dorms in the city at Main Street and Washington Boulevard.
UConn’s main Stamford building covers the entire north side of the Broad Street block between Franklin Street and Washington Boulevard.
Next to 5 Broad, several thousand square feet of space is vacant at the base of the Trump Parc building.
Alongside the vacancies, a Target store and a Citibank branch are mainstays on the block.
At the same time, sustained runs by the neighboring Salon Shahin, Indian restaurant Coromandel and City Furniture show that independent businesses can last on Broad Street.
Farther east on the street, a Blackstones Steakhouse debuted about a year ago. Across the street, a coffee shop is planned at the Ferguson Library to replace a Starbucks that closed last year.