Fairfield Center Lost a Block on Unquowa Road. Its Shops Moved to Sherman Street and the Post Road.

"It's stressful having to move after so many years, and we are grateful for the support that we received from the Town." Lisa Storch said in August in a Town of Fairfield report, after the Town of Fairfield gave her café a grant to help cover new equipment and fit-up costs at its new address.

A few weeks later, a demolition crew took down her old building. The Town describes Catch a Healthy Habit as a downtown fixture for twenty years. A Westfair photo published September 29 shows what's left of the smoothie café: a pile of bricks.

People who walk through Fairfield Center can see the gap. Fewer have followed where everyone went. At least five businesses had to leave that strip this spring. Every one that has been traced since moved to another Fairfield address, on Sherman Street, Reef Road or the Post Road. The new building planned for the old site will have two ground-floor retail spaces. So the Center's small-business map won't be going back to how it was. It has already moved.

The notice came in winter. The moves came by spring.

The businesses heard over the winter of 2025–26 that their landlord planned to replace the property with a five-story, 50-unit apartment building. In February, Westfair reported that the tenants would have to move or close by April. It named Las Vetas Lounge, Fairfield Barber Shop, Catch a Healthy Habit Café, Tenth of June and Nancy Galasso Interiors.

That deadline didn't come out of nowhere. The project had been in front of the town for years, and the legal history explains why the move-outs happened so fast once it was settled:

1. 2022. Fairfield's Plan and Zoning Commission denied the original application, which called for 63 units. It had been filed under Connecticut's 8-30g affordable housing statute, not as a regular zoning application.
2. 2024. A court overturned the denial.
3. June 2025. The commission approved a revised 50-unit plan with settlement conditions. Westfair later reported that the agreement requires at least two street-level retail shops.
4. Winter 2025–26. Tenants received notice.
5. Mid-to-late September 2026. The building at 39 Unquowa Road came down.

The two-shop requirement is the key detail in that history. It sets a floor on retail at the site, and two is the floor. Five tenants left. Unless the plan changes, the block returns with two storefronts.

Where each business landed

As of September 28, Westfair confirmed the new addresses for three of the tenants. News 12 and Patch reported the rest.

Two Sherman Street addresses, two Post Road addresses and one on Reef Road. Each move came with its own change.

Clean Slate is the old café under a new name, with the same owners. Lisa Storch runs it with her husband, Glen Colello. Storch is a holistic health counselor and raw foods chef who beat Bobby Flay on the Food Network in 2020. The menu still focuses on organic, gluten-free fresh-squeezed juices, dairy-free smoothies, matcha and coffee. The town's grant came from its Micro-Enterprise Assistance Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is open to Fairfield businesses with five or fewer employees. The town says the program has helped more than sixty small businesses since it started.

Fairfield Hair House at 1040 Post Road is owned by June Chen. Marco DiVincenzo, who ran Fairfield Barber Shop on Unquowa Road, moved his chair there instead of finding a new storefront of his own. If you've been looking for the barber shop sign, the shop now goes by another business's name.

Wendy & June pairs two owners in one space. Wendy Mount and Amanda Desmond told News 12 that Tenth of June and Wendy Loves This stay separate businesses under the shared store name. Posts from the shop in August and September list hours of Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The August post offered fresh-cut flowers on Fridays while supplies last, and the September post was already promoting seasonal home goods. Westfair still calls the old storefront the home of "Tenth of June for the holidays," which shows how closely the business was tied to the season. This will be its first holiday season at 40 Reef Road.

Las Vetas Lounge is the only one still in progress. In April, Westfair reported a target of reopening around July 1 at 1640 Post Road. In June, News 12 said renovations were still underway. Westfair's September 29 report says the lounge had moved to 1640 Post Road as of September 28, but doesn't say whether it has reopened.

What goes up at 15 Unquowa Road, and when

The project is called Center Commons. The developer is Dr. Lee Forest, through Stratford-based 15 Unquowa Road LLC. Plans call for a five-story building with 50 apartments, eight of them affordable housing units, and the two ground-floor retail spaces required by the settlement.

Only 39 Unquowa Road has been demolished so far. The buildings that housed Las Vetas, Fairfield Barber Shop, Tenth of June and Nancy Galasso Interiors are marked for demolition but were still standing at the end of September.

The construction schedule is given as "late 2026 and early 2027." The developer also told Westfair that vertical construction and interior build-out should take 12 to 18 months after the foundation is poured. No completion date has been announced, and the rest of the old storefronts still have to come down before a foundation can go in.

The same week, across town on Commerce Drive

Unquowa Road wasn't the only demolition in Fairfield that month. In the same two-week stretch, a crew took down the former Rio Bravo Tacos & Tequila, a 4,090-square-foot building at 770 Commerce Drive, along with a WWII-era industrial building next door at 750 Commerce Drive.

That site will become a 90-unit mixed-use building from Skala Partners of West Hartford. The firm is run by former New England Patriots linebacker Niko Koutouvides and his brother Aristides. The project sits 0.1 miles from the Fairfield Metro/Black Rock train station. Plans call for 4,313 square feet of first-floor retail, apartments on floors two through five and 118 parking spaces. Construction is scheduled to start in late 2026 and finish in 2027.

The two projects follow the same pattern. Single-story retail comes down, and a five-story building goes up with apartments above and a smaller retail footprint at street level. On Commerce Drive, the change affects a corridor near the train. On Unquowa Road, it's happening in downtown Fairfield itself.

October in the Center, around the construction fence

The construction won't stop the fall calendar near the Center:

• Fairfield Harvest Market, Saturday, October 17, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Old Town Hall Green, 611 Old Post Road. The rain date is October 24. Expect 70-plus vendors and food trucks, a dog-costume parade at noon and a giant-pumpkin guessing game.
• Halloween on the Green, Sunday, October 25, noon to 4 p.m., Fairfield Museum, 370 Beach Road. The event is free, with trick-or-treating, food vendors and family activities.

If you're out for either event, two of the former Unquowa Road tenants are easy to find. Clean Slate is at 116 Sherman Street. Wendy & June is open Tuesday through Saturday on Reef Road, so it's closed on the Sunday of Halloween on the Green.

Owners near Fairfield Center are now looking at two new apartment buildings on the way, a block of empty lots that will return with fewer shops, and a few streets that just picked up long-standing tenants. If you'd like a discreet read on how these changes affect your property's value, the Dannel Malloy team can walk through it with you by appointment. Request a Confidential Valuation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.