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Construction Pace Quickens At Queen Street Shopping Center

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Workmen have been moving quickly at Newtown Shopping Center on Queen Street

laboring to get the new Big Y supermarket completed by November 1.

Joseph T. Kasper, Jr, president of Kasper Group, Inc, of Bridgeport, the

shopping center's owner, said Tuesday much construction progress on the

redevelopment project has been made during the past two weeks.

Workmen are now installing fixtures inside the 57,000-square-foot Big Y

supermarket, Mr Kasper said.

The Big Y will be almost six times the size of the former A&P supermarket it

replaces.

Stephen B. Hurwitz, the director of real estate for Big Y Foods, Inc, of

Springfield, Mass., has said Big Y is eager to move into a new store in

Newtown.

My Place Restaurant, a popular eatery at the center, will move to the former

post office on Queen Street next week, Mr Kasper said. Initially, the

restaurant will sell pizza, and later expand its menu, he said. The restaurant

should be completely moved to its new quarters by September 29, he added.

The 20,000-square-foot section of the main plaza building south of the former

A&P Supermarket will be demolished to create an expanded parking area for the

redeveloped center. Many of the businesses formerly housed in the section to

be demolished have relocated to the building on the south side of the plaza.

The space which formerly housed the A&P will be home to a new CVS store.

Workmen have been installing traffic islands in the expanded parking lot. A

new sidewalk is being built in front of the CVS store.

When completed, the shopping center will have 570 parking spaces. It now has

about 300 spaces.

Mr Kasper said he is still negotiating to purchase the Wiehl property that

will link the north side of the center to Church Hill Road. In the future, Mr

Kasper plans to build an extension wing north of the CVS store toward Church

Hill Road.

That wing may be built next year, Mr Kasper said.

When the project is completely developed, there will be approximately 115,000

square feet of enclosed space.

The expansion project is intended to revitalize the town center through the

redevelopment of a facility which has deteriorated since A&P left the site.

Most residents who spoke on the shopping center redevelopment project at a

past Borough Zoning Commission public hearing voiced support for the expansion

project. However, some said they fear an expanded shopping center will

generate more traffic on streets in the town center, especially on the

heavily-traveled Church Hill Road, posing yet more traffic congestion problems

there.