Image courtesy of Beinfeld Architecture
After one local developer’s ambitious hotel, residential and retail vision for Westport’s dilapidated Saugatuck commercial node collapsed this spring, another developer has stepped up with an idea of its own for the area.
Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners told Westport officials in a limited pre-application filing that they intend to propose 157 apartments on a 1.5-acre subset of the area luxury hotel developer Roan had pitched turning into a grand, five-acre project called “The Hamlet” early last year.
The Roan proposal subsequently flamed out in the face of aggressive pushback from residents and amid a lawsuit and the Westport-based firm’s threats to instead build hundreds of apartments on the site via the state’s 8-30g law, which lets affordable housing developments supersede local zoning laws.
Spinnaker’s proposal covers a single property that it now owns, 606 Riverside Ave., that’s largely parking lot – plus a dry cleaner’s and a car repair garage. Notably, the proposal includes neither a neighboring retail strip next to the Westport Metro-North train station nor a small office building next door nor a cluster of waterfront commercial buildings.
To assuage concerns about height and density, Spinnaker’s filing includes renderings showing facades that only rise to 3.5 stories, with taller stories significantly stepped back from the street to hide their bulk. The facade is further broken up with a series of neo-traditional facades, some of which appear to contain retail storefronts.
Norwalk firm Beinfeld Architecture is the designer.
“Spinnaker has studied prior proposals for the property and associated concerns. This Beinfield plan reflects that input: contextually appropriate for Saugatuck and grounded in a traditional and contextual vernacular,” The filing states.
The Spinnaker filing states 10 percent of the development’s units would be deed-restricted affordable housing, and 283 parking spots would be included in two-level garage, significantly more than regulations require.
