By Dave Matlow

The 39-year-old office building at 500 Post Road East, across from Westport Fire Headquarters, is getting a green makeover.

Timon Malloy, representing the owner of 500 Post Road East, is shown on the third floor of the building, which he says will be “totally green.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

The building, former home of Terex Corp., changed ownership in March 2012 for $9 million. Timon Malloy, president of Stamford-based Fred F. French Investing LLC , the new owner, said innovation of the 37,000-square foot building is being completed in two phases with final completion projected for 2017.

The former Westport resident said the initial phase, the 15,000-square foot third floor, is well underway. Then the second phase will begin—renovation of the entrance level and second floor.

“The building will be totally green, a shift from the original structure, which lacked proper insulation and was mainly electric powered,” said Malloy, son of the late Westport artist Susan Malloy.

Lester’s, a clothing, shoes and accessories store, with contemporary fashions, will open next month at 605 Post Road East (opposite Fresh Market) in the space previously occupied by WishList that closed last month after 18 years. Westport will be the fifth location for the chain that has other locations in New York City’s Upper East Side as well as in Greenvale, Rye Brook and Brooklyn, N.Y. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Shoe-Inn, the women’s designer shoe store for four decades at 38 Main St., has reopened across the street at 21 Main St. next to Pottery Barn. The new space was formerly occupied by Henry Lehr. Shoe-Inn has seven other stores located in New Jersey, Westchester County, New York City, and Long Island. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

By Tom Condon

www.ctmirror.org

Dixwell Avenue in Hamden is an inelegant and jumbled commercial strip, a paean to post-World War II planning, a hurried venue for cars where pedestrians or bike riders venture at considerable risk. For example, at the 1950s-era Hamden Plaza, diners leaving Panera Bread on one side of the mall often find the parking lot so vast and uninviting that they get in their cars to pilgrimage to Ashley’s Ice Cream on the other side.

Hamden Plaza on Dixwell Avenue in Hamden. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Tom Condon/Ctmirror.org

But over time Dixwell and Hamden’s other two major commercial thoroughfares, State Street and Whitney Avenue, may take on a friendlier look and scale; indeed Whitney already is.

Hamden has joined a quiet revolution going on across the country in an area not usually associated with revolutionary fervor: zoning. Instead of focusing on what a building is used for, as traditional zoning does, the new approach, called “form-based zoning,” concentrates on what a building looks like — its form — and how it relates to the street and the neighborhood.

Advocates say the focus on the physical form of buildings encourages diverse, attractive and walkable streets, protects the character of neighborhoods and encourages development by making it more predictable and less administratively cumbersome.

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Riverside Barber Shop, 231 Post Road West, above Greg & Tony salon, has opened under new ownership. Continuing a tradition, owner Tammy Stefanidis of Westport said the shop will soon celebrate the 90th anniversary since founded on Riverside Avenue in 1927 by John Santella, followed by his son Lou Santella and then owned by Pat Vigilio since November 1999 when he relocated the business to its current location. (See WestportNow Aug 29, 2009, Feb. 22, 2010 and March 27, 2010) Vigilio recently retired and relocated to Florida, according to Stefanidis. She said she worked for Vigilio for seven years until 2006 and then spent the past 10 years as a homemaker raising her family. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Sola Salons will open this month on the ground floor level at 495 Post Road East, adjacent to the Steinway store, according to co-owners and Westport residents Rich and Holly Bobrow (above). Rich Bobrow said the 6,000 square feet facility has 26 “studios,” each available for “experienced hair stylists and other beauty professionals to open their own business in a turnkey, fully equipped setup.”  He added, “Sola empowers its stylists to develop their businesses and realize their dreams.” The Westport site, the fifth in Connecticut, is one of 250 location throughout the country. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com