Just over the Old Greenwich line in Stamford, the city Zoning Board is considering a residential development at the Conair Corp site where a warehouse and offices were demolished and the land is vacant.
The 9.17 acres site, located in Stamford’s Waterside neighborhood, is located at 23 Barry Place, adjacent to the access road leading to the new Wings Ice Arena at 5 Barry Place.
It is proposed to feature be rezoned to R-MF in the rear for a 4-story building and transition to 2-1/2 story townhouses at the front, to be zoned RM-1.
The 60 townhouses will be for sale, and six are proposed to be BMR units (below market units).
In the apartment building at the rear, reduced to 185 units from the 200+ units previously proposed, there would be 20 units set aside as below market rate.
Previous in previous iterations of the proposal focused on environmental remediation, density, noise and traffic.
The 60 townhomes would each have a two-car garage on the ground/lower level, living room, kitchen and dining level on the first level, two bedrooms on the upper level and a third bedroom on the attic level.
The 4 story approximately 39’ tall apartment building is proposed to have units arranged around two courtyards. The parking garage will be located in the basement of the building accessed through an exterior ramp located on the north-west side of the building.
Link to applicant’s colorized architectural plans here. AWA Design Group P.C.
Attorney Michael Cacace representing the applicant, Continental Family Holdings LLC, said they had eliminated the entire center section of the apartment complex at the rear, reduced the number of proposed units in the apartment building – eliminating 16 three-bedroom units (leaving seven 3-bedroom units) in favor of mostly 2 bedroom units and some 1 bedroom units.
This made possible a larger courtyard for the apartment building – increasing it from 6,400 sq ft to 11,500 sq ft.
In turn they also reduced parking, taking out an entire row of 24 parking spaces, and increasing the dog park amenity from 1500 to 2300 sq ft and playground from 2500 to 4300+ sq ft. Overall the result was a reduction in impervious surface of 2.4 acres.
Other amenities include a common room, lobby, fitness room, mail room and office, as well as bike parking, and EV charging and parking.
Cacace said there is bus service from directly in front of the development, and they believe many residents will take advantage of public transportation.
The attorney also said intersection of Selleck and Fairfield may require adjustments and the applicant was willing to agree to that as a condition based on the opinion of the city’s Transportation, Traffic, and Parking Dept, “TTP.”
Second, improvements to Melrose Place might be necessary and they agree to satisfy TTP’s requests there as well.
The applicant said they walked Melrose Place and described it as having been neglected for many years.
“They came in and paved the roadway, but they didn’t do any other improvement. No sidewalks, no formalized parking. We agree to do whatever TTP thinks is best,” said engineer Len D’Andrea.
Mr. D’Andrea said the proposed change in zoning from Manufacturing to Residential would essentially reverse the former traffic patterns of people arriving and leaving prescribed times. Also there would no longer be trucks coming and going.
Instead residents would leave in the morning and returning in the afternoon but not necessarily during rush hour.
There will be just one curb cut for a single entrance/exit.
Bus routes – one takes people into old Greenwich and one goes by Boccuzzi Park and into downtown Stamford.
The applicant said the landscaped development would create a nice “buffer” adjacent to Innis Arden Golf course in Old Greenwich to the west and south, and the railroad line to the north.
To the east is a large two-family neighborhood that includes homes on Congress St, Carlisle Place and Burwood Ave.
They said the landscaping plan will bring back vegetation the property hadn’t featured for a century.
Attorney Cacace said the applicant had been working on the application for five years.
“We’ve gone back as far as 2018, 2019, and at that point the city encouraged us not to change the site to residential. They wanted to keep it in an industrial zone,” Cacace said. “We left it in an industrial zone and it was marketed for several years without success.”
Len D’Andrea said the original proposal was to build high density housing throughout the entire site, but both the Stamford planning board and zoning board staff indicated they would prefer a transitional zone.
In response, they reduced the front portion of the parcel that fronts onto Barry Place to a category that allows for townhouses they intend to offer for sale.
He said the site is large enough to break it up and bring in two types of housing – the townhouses in front and low rise apartment building with elevators and parking underneath the building at the rear.
D’Andrea said the development would not change the character of the neighborhood given, he said it would be a “tight, secluded location.”
“You would have to go out of your way to see this building,” he said.
The applicant said the development is not adjacent to any single family use, and although Innis Arden Golf Course (to the west and south) is zoned R-10.
“The golf course has been there about 120 years. They recently built a new clubhouse,” D’Andrea said. “They have a full membership and I seriously doubt they’re going to be selling this to a residential developer any time soon.”
“We lost some units when we met with Innis Arden and they asked us to make some changes,” Mr. Cacace continued. “We came in with a proposal for 261 units and we listened to you and heard you were concerned about the density and we eliminated the 16 of the 3-bedroom units in response.”
During public comment, residential neighbors had mostly positive feedback. Several said the proposal reflected “the highest and best use” of the property. More than one neighbor said they anticipated property values in the neighborhood to increase overall and lead to improved sidewalks, roads and lighting.
However some said they worried parking might spill over to the adjacent streets where residents rely on limited street parking.
Carlos Rodrigues, pastor at St. Clement’s Church, supported the development, adding there was a great need for housing in Stamford.
Father Rodrigues agreed the surrounding neighborhood suffered a lack of parking, and sometimes lets people from the Loading Dock catering business use the church parking lot.
“They’re not the ones in the streets. The ones in the streets are day workers who park their cars and congest the whole area,” he said, citing Melrose Place as particularly congested. “A sidewalk is a sidewalk. It is not a parking place.”
Salvatore Zarrella said 85 petitions that were submitted to the land use board, had sprung up organically in the previous three days reflecting concern about the volume and desnity of the development.
“It is too big,” Zarrella said. “We ask that it be reduced.”
Link to applicant’s colorized architectural plans here. AWA Design Group P.C.
Link to applicant’s colorized architectural plans here. AWA Design Group P.C.
As for concerns about traffic, the applicant pointed out there were previously 400 employees coming and going from the Conair site, though one neighbor suggested that many employees rode the bus to work.
They said they were not degrading traffic conditions, notably because the previous extensive truck traffic for the industrial use was removed.
They also said the proposed parking exceeded requirements of the zoning regs.
The board closed the application, but would not vote until their next meeting on Jan 5, 2026 which starts at 6:30pm on Zoom.
View the application materials here.
Development proposed to be rezoned from M-G to R-MF in the back and RM-1 in the front of the development. The Waterside neighborhood has about 672 acres and includes 16 different zoning districts.
Added vegetation at north (adjacent to train tracks) and at west (adjacent to golf club).
The development will have one tree-lined central driveway – and one curb cut.
