FAIRFIELD COUNTY
BUSINESS JOURNAL September 21, 2015 | VOL. 51, No. 38
13 | LAW FIRM CELEBRATES 20 YEARS
22 | GOOD THINGS HAPPENING westfaironline.com
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What’s old is new at The Federalist REPRODUCTION FURNISHINGS EXUDE AIR OF ANTIQUITY
BY BILL FALLON bfallon@westfairinc.com
F Jennifer Charlebois Martin, CEO and co-owner, The Federalist, with a hand-rubbed lighting fixture in the Greenwich store. Photo by Bill Fallon
or the past 20 years — including the last five months under new owners — The Federalist in Greenwich has provided high-end reproduction furniture and lighting fixtures to a well-heeled clientele coast to coast. In particular, the store notably is classing up the Sun Belt; The Federalist’s largest client bases are in Florida, Texas and California. In a world where craftsmanship is said to be on the decline, the three-room store, occupying 4,000 square feet of an appropriately Federalist-style building
at 95 E. Putnam Ave., furthers the careers of polishers, carpenters and carvers in the U.S. — Massachusetts is a production hotbed — and light makers in Florence, Italy, where the store gets its chandeliers and wall sconces. Light fixtures account for about 40 percent of the store’s business. On a recent rainy afternoon, co-owner and CEO Jennifer Charlebois Martin said, “It really comes down to quality. We’re not a lighting and furniture store. Our products are all handmade and all custom. For us, the product and its quality are so important.” » FEDERALIST, page 6
Study looks at developing Ridge�ield’s Neighbor BY DANIELLE BRODY dbrody@westfairinc.com
A
study will determine if downtown Ridgefield’s less developed neighbor, Branchville, has the potential to leverage its train station and become a vibrant transitoriented development. Located about a mile from the center of Ridgefield, bordering Wilton and Redding, Branchville has a train station with infrequent service on MetroNorth’s Danbury line and a strip of retail on either side of busy Route 7.
With a $256,000 state grant in hand, the town is a few months into a study of its train line, infrastructure and needs. While train stations were the hub of activity a hundred years ago, many of these types of towns in the state need to be revamped, said Jonathan Chew, senior project manager for the Western Connecticut Council of Governments, which is conducting the study. “What’s around railroad stations hasn’t really been thought through terribly well in the past decades in terms of its ability to » BRANCHVILLE, page 17
Lars Anderson, operations manager of the Little Pub stands in front of the Branchville location on Route 7. Photo by Danielle Brody