AUGUST 12, 2019 VOL. 55, No. 32
westfaironline.com
The SoNo Collection in Norwalk is near completion. Photo by Luis Flores.
Countdown to SoNo opening
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TRUMBULL DEVELOPMENT
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TOM BRADY, GISELE BUNDCHEN LOOKING IN GREENWICH
BRIDGEPORT CASINO PROPOSAL BACKED BY BIPARTISAN GROUP OF STATE LEGISLATORS
AREA MALLS STAYING THE COURSE, DEFYING A NATIONAL TREND
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SPORTS GAMBLING COMING TO CONNECTICUT?
BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com
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t is hardly news that brick-and-mortar retail is under fire, with thousands of store closures having an understandable knock-on effect for shopping malls. But the major malls in Fairfield County are painting a rosy picture,
while the great unknown — Norwalk’s $450 million, 717,000-square-foot SoNo Collection — readies itself for an October opening. “We’ve been the prominent shopping and dining destination in Stamford for the past 37 years and we are proud to continue serving the community,” said Dan Stolzenbach, general manager of the 853,000-squarefoot Stamford Town Center.
“We’re doing very well this year,” said Maura Ruby, senior property manager at the Danbury Fair Mall, which at nearly 1.3 million square feet is the county’s largest. “We’ve undertaken a lot of renovations and we are very excited to open the H&M (Aug. 22), which will showcase the newest prototype store buildout.” Katherine Bolas, marketing director for the 1.13 million-square-foot Westfield Trumbull, also spoke glowingly of new store openings, while Brookfield Properties, which owns the SoNo Collection, maintains that it is roughly 80% leased. One of its anchor ten» SONO
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BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com
T
he on-again, offagain plan to bring a casino to Bridgeport looks like it could be on again — although there are still hurdles to overcome. The Connecticut Jobs and Revenue Act (CJRA) carries the support of a bipartisan, bicameral group of legislators, according to State Sen. Cathy Osten (D-Sprague). The bill would require the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes — which respectively operate the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos
— to spend a minimum of $100 million toward a $300 million entertainment and gambling facility in Bridgeport. In return, the tribes would be allowed to conduct sports wagering at their casinos, through mobile applications and online. Sports wagering would be taxed at 8% while internet gambling would be taxed at 10%. The tribes would also pay the state 10% of casino table game revenues. They already pay 25% of their slot machine revenue to the state. The CJRA would modernize the Connecticut Lottery by allowing it to » CASINO
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