'All scrambling now.' Shops in downtown Fairfield get mid-April deadline to move or close
Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe, Fairfield Barber Shop and Las Vetas Lounge are among the small businesses who will lose their homes as the landlord of the buildings moves forward with plans for a 50-unit apartment building.
Several small businesses in downtown Fairfield have until mid-April to find a new location or close as their landlord plans to turn the property on Unquowa Road into a 50-unit apartment building.
Las Vetas Lounge, the Fairfield Barber Shop, Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe, Tenth of June and Nancy Galasso Interiors all received emails from the property owner last month with an April 15 deadline.
Glen Colello has run Catch a Healthy Habit Café with his wife for almost 17 years and told News 12 the landlord, Dr. Lee Forest, first began talking about putting in a residential development there in 2017. The town denied the project in 2022, but Forest, operating as 15 Unquowa Road LLC, appealed the decision in state court and won in 2024. Fairfield continued to fight the development but ultimately reached an agreement with Forest last year.
“Fairfield's been really, really good to us and this strip,” said Colello, adding that he and his wife have been talking to two other locations about potential leases. “As a local business we're hoping to stay and still be part of the fabric.”
“We've known about the possibility of the apartments for a long time, but now it’s coming to a reality,” stated Marco DiVincenzo, who owns the Fairfield Barber Shop next door. “We're sort of all scrambling now to find a new location, which luckily we have.”
DiVincenzo has secured a new space at 1040 Post Road, but moving still isn’t easy. The shop’s roots go back decades.
“It's bittersweet. It's a great area, great neighbors. I worked with my father for about six years, and he just passed away in October, so it's a lot of emotions,” DiVincenzo explained, adding that he’s sad to see the history of that area be torn down. “No one is jumping for joy to have another apartment building in town.”
The plan calls for a five-story apartment building with 50 units, eight of them affordable. There will also be two commercial spaces on the ground floor facing the street, which was part of the settlement with the town.
“Our customers are disappointed that this part of town is going to change dramatically first and foremost,” Colello said. “But also, that all the mom-and-pop, family-owned businesses are either going to have to move or go away.”
At Las Vetas Lounge, the future is still unknown.
“We're just going to have to take it day by day right now and see how things unfold. We're really grateful to the community, and the people who have stuck by our side for so long,” said barista Maura Scali. “They will hopefully come visit us wherever we end up moving.”
The coffee shop, which has been at the Unquowa location for about 16 years, has plenty of regulars.
“This is a hub of community. I post up all the time to work. My wife was like, ‘You're really upset about this?’ Yeah, I really am,” said customer Jesse Shafer. “It's just kind of a bummer that you have to sacrifice something that's kind of integral to the community to get more housing.”
News 12 reached out to Forest about the deadline and the project’s timeline but has not heard back yet.
