Friday afternoon was one of those neighborhood inventory days focused on the East End: damn ticks have taken a bite out of Pleasure Beach prompting health officials to shut down the peninsula for the season to bathing and fishing, my regular childhood destination angling snapper blues on the t-shaped pier – bamboo pole, line, bobber and a hook.
Still, lots to feel good about in the East End, a destination ignored for decades and a citizenry crying for progress.
From I-95 north bound you can see the difference – 400 units of largely upscale housing rising along the waterfront that had been stifled from access for 100 years, blocked by a since-removed power plant – at the Steelpointe Harbor redevelopment area that will attract lower Fairfield County residents applauding waterfront views, the father-son vision vision of the Christoph family who relocated their Miami RCI Marine operation to this area.
When was the last time you heard of a Miami business moving to Bridgeport?
With the help of state financing there’s a 20 percent carve out for “work force” housing marketed to healthcare and municipal workers such as police and fire whose incomes would be out of reach.
Along the way Bobby Christoph Jr. recruited and developed Bridgeport Marine, a shipyard offering full-service maintenance & repair, North Sails the world’s premier sailmaker for racing and cruising sailboats and an affiliate of the The Hornblower Group, that operates tourist shuttles in New York Harbor.
The Steelpointe housing units are scheduled to open next summer, bringing higher discretionary income to support local businesses and restaurants. And, in a few weeks, a groundbreaking is scheduled for an adjacent Marriott Hotel, in a city now a hotel desert following the conversion of the Holiday Inn into apartments.
A short distance away, at Stratford and Seaview Avenue, interconnected services are also on the rise for the neighborhood and new housing units: service station, car wash and convenience store.
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Now, let’s segue to the local mainstay residential area of the district along the Stratford Avenue corridor. Time to check in on the Honey Locust Square development to eye an update on the things the neighborhood needs most: grocery store, bank branch, pharmacy, health care facility, things many of us take for granted.
As I pulled up, the man in charge of the project Anthony Stewart, an East End kid turned developer, is directing traffic on the finishing touches on more than 500-feet of sidewalk.
This has been his baby for about seven years. He had his financing in place then COVID hit in 2020 and changed everything. The supply line faltered and then prices ballooned. Stewart needed city and state government financial help and received it, in addition to refinancing the project. It took years longer than anticipated. He’s also the developer who built the new, adjacent Newfield library that opened a few years ago.
On Friday Stewart was on the job, doing his thing with about 30 construction workers on site. He was not expecting me as I extended my hand unannounced, explaining I was simply driving by to eye an update on a project that could be a mass infusion to this neighborhood, many of whom can walk from their homes.
“Hey, I was driving by and saw you. I’m sure the word you’ve heard the most is ‘when.”
“You’re not kidding. I hear it all the time, every day,” Stewart responded.
I did not ask for a tour. I simply wondered about an update.
“Follow me, I’ll show you.”
We enter the future Gala grocery store, nearly 20,000 square feet, freezers, refrigerators hulking the inside, carve outs for check out points, kitchen, deli, meat and fish departments and various aisles. Flooring is underway.
Gala has two other locations in Bridgeport.
Side-by-side spaces are fit up for a pharmacy and healthcare facility.
Little things mean a lot, especially when the neighborhood has been without one for so long, all the fittings for an M&T Bank branch.
Also, part of the development a beauty salon, event space for 100 people, and jazz-theme barbecue restaurant.
“Let me show you the restaurant.”
“Ooh, is that a barbecue pit?”
“Yes. Can’t wait to fire it up.”
And, not one bar in the restaurant, but two.
Twice the spirited pleasure.
So, I ask Stewart about the “When” word.
“When?”
“September,” he says.
“September 2025?”
Sweet music to the ears of the East End.
