Redevelopment plodding along

3/27/08
No one ever thought redeveloping downtown Bridgeport would be easy. But the way it’s playing out has been more difficult than even some of the skeptics were predicting.
The latest blow came this week with the announcement that the Fat Cat Pie Co., long touted as a key cog in the development plans, has given up on the city. A Norwalk-based gourmet pizza restaurant, Fat Cat had been slated originally for the Lofts at Lafayette building and then for the Citytrust building, a landmark former bank retrofitted for apartments.
But after waiting more than two years on the Citytrust site, the restaurant’s owner has had enough, and is pulling the plug. “It has taken too much time and there were too many promises,” owner Anthony Ancona said, noting the original planned opening date came and went two years ago.
The way things are looking, he could have been talking about more than his own restaurant. It’s good news that Citytrust officials are reporting an 80 percent occupancy rate, but the overall picture downtown is mixed at best.
One restaurant coming or going isn’t the end of the world. Development projects take time, and getting an entire neighborhood back on its feet was always going to be difficult. But the national economic picture raises questions about the entire endeavor.
The housing market, upon which much of Bridgeport’s hope was based, is collapsing, and lenders look increasingly unwilling to provide the cash necessary to build more of it. The work stoppage on Phillip Kuchma’s Bijou Square project is just the most visible sign of a problem likely to plague Bridgeport for years.
The mixed-use mega-projects around town are all supposedly on schedule, but may not open for years, even in best-case scenarios. Smaller deals have seen mixed results, but the housing slump is weighing on everything.
The early success of Two Boots restaurant, along with established downtown eateries like Ralph & Rich’s, have shown that people are willing to come downtown for food and entertainment. But they need places to go. If the housing picture doesn’t turn around, Bridgeport’s downtown could end up back at square one. Someone ought to have a backup plan handy.