By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The man behind a small real estate renaissance in the heart of Saugatuck gave the Westport Journal a walk-through of his three properties Friday.

Dan Riccio, a Trumbull landscaper-turned-developer who, with Matt Kinch heads up Helpful Home Buyers LLC, bought 1 Sunrise Road, 3 Sunrise Road and an adjoining property at 58 Saugatuck Ave., from a longtime Saugatuck family.

Over recent months, work has progressed on all three houses. The properties are modest, less than an acre between them, and on hilly terrain. 

At the bottom of Sunrise is busy Saugatuck Avenue, and across the street are Dunville’s Restaurant, Four Brothers Pizza and the tail end of Franklin Street.

Sunrise Road is a friendly neighborhood, where many original homes remain intact. 

“We’ve worked in quite a few towns, but this is our first time in Westport,” Riccio said. “Each town is a little different.”

He’s been working with Gloria Gouveia, a land-use consultant who’s helped him navigate the local terrain.

The structure at 1 Sunrise is a 1960 duplex. The work there is nearly done, Riccio said, and the two units should be listed as condos within a few weeks. The units will have garages and gas fireplaces. And they’re several blocks from the Saugatuck Metro-North Railroad Station and many restaurants.

Just uphill is 3 Sunrise. Stripped to its bones, cinder-block construction was revealed. Riccio said he’d never encountered that before. 

“That was certainly interesting,” he said, “to find out the walls were made of cinder block instead of wood framing. So, we had to adapt and work with what we had.”

On Friday, workers were hoisting and installing beams for an expanded second floor. Shots from nail guns punctuated the air, a crane loomed above.

The house will remain single family, but with more floor space, bedrooms and baths than its original post-war design from 1948. 

At 58 Saugatuck Ave., the century-old, two-family bungalow has been stripped to its wood-framed skeleton and will, once work is done, also have more floor space. 

One unit will have two bedrooms and two baths. The other, two bedrooms and 2.5 baths, Riccio said.

And then there’s a retail storefront at 58 Saugatuck Ave., vacant a couple decades after a catering company relocated. Riccio said it might be occupied once again.

“It’s a lot of work,” he said of the overall project. “It’s fun. Looking at it on the first day of what it was, and then on the last day, when it’s totally done.”

“And then,” he admitted, “there’s all the work in between.” 

Riccio has done several new construction projects, but renovations are more his thing. And, he said, 98 percent of the sellers are ready for a traditional transaction, but some, as was the case of the Saugatuck properties, need a few months to get affairs in order.

“We’re here for that 2 percent,” he said.

Real estate projects happen all over Westport, all the time. But the Sunrise Road cluster of activity is different. Three old houses being rehabbed and expanded, rather than being torn down and replaced with outsized, modern structures.

People apparently appreciate that, according to a very unscientific poll. Riccio said people drive by and honk their support.

“All the time,” he said. “My carpenters tell me, they drive by, they give us the thumbs-up.”

Thane Grauel, the Westport Journal executive editor, grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond more than three decades. Learn more about us here.