Use of Former Dry Cleaners on West Putnam Ave Proposed to Change to Catering

A new pre-application has been submitted to the Greenwich Planning & Zoning to open a catering facility in the former New England Custom Cleaners at 169 West Putnam Ave.

The applicant is Alex Gurevich, 169 WPA LLC.

The property is .24 acres and the building is 10,530 sq ft.

The building, which is in the GB Zone, has been vacant for about a year.

When the building was occupied by the dry cleaners, customer parking was at the front of the building and customers had to back out onto West Putnam Ave to exit. Employees parked at the rear of the building, accessed along a driveway to the west of the building.

According to the applicant’s narrative, there is a small wetland and small portion of a watercourse in the northeast corner of the property.

The building, which dates back to 1923, has recently been repainted white to gray and is undergoing renovations.

Also, according to the narrative, in addition to 169 W Putnam Ave the property owner, Alex Gurevich owns the office building at 177 West Putnam Avenue, which is not immediately next door, but one door down.

In order to accommodate the new use at 169 West Putnam Ave, the applicant proposes to utilize the 29 parking spaces at 177 West Putnam Ave for a total of 38 spaces.

Also, according to the application narrative, in addition to 169 W Putnam Ave, the property owner, Alex Gurevich also owns the office building at 177 West Putnam Avenue, which is not immediately next door, but one door down.

The narrative says that since the parking space usage at 177 West Putnam Ave is not coincidental with the catering space at 169 West Putnam Ave, they hope to use those spaces to satisfy the parking requirement.

“Additionally, we would like to take advantage of the regulation that allows for a 25% valet/tandem parking. With the 25% allowance we get to 51 parking spaces,” the applicant’s narrative states.

The application has yet to be added to a P&Z meeting agenda.