By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — A Post Road East shopping center from the mid-1940s would be replaced by a “family golf entertainment center” under a plan filed recently with the Planning and Zoning Commission.

1620 PRE Associates LLC has filed a general development/special permit application that would allow it to change the current 3-acre property, including an 8,550-square foot building with a mix of retail and a restaurant, to the golfing recreation center, and, in a potential future phase, adding 10 residential townhouses on the back property, two of them at below market rents.

The mid-century shopping center is home to businesses including Innovation Luggage, Redi-Cut Carpet and Rugs, Nantucket Bagg, and Pane e Bene, an Italian eatery.

According to a letter from Rick Redness of Redness and Mead, Redi-Cut and “The Clubhouse,” the new golf center, would be the two remaining tenants.

“The condition of this property is not up to traditional Westport standards and the proposed redevelopment would dramatically improve what you see today,” Redniss wrote to neighbors.

“The commercial landscaping and truck parking to the rear of the existing building and storage containers will be removed. There will be a new parking area and fewer curb cuts with attractive landscaping,” Redniss wrote.

It’s the latest iteration of an earlier plan proposed, and then withdrawn, from Post Road East at Colonial Road, for the old Men’s Wearhouse building. There, neighbors were concerned about spillover parking and other issues.

The application does not yet appear on a Planning and Zoning Commission agenda.

Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 35 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.