By Ken Valenti
WESTPORT–Two pieces of the site where Roan Development Ventures fought unsuccessfully to build the Hamlet at Saugatuck development have been bought by Spinnaker Real Estate Partners of Norwalk.
Spinnaker purchased 606 Riverside Ave. and 96 Franklin St. on March 13, according to property transfer records distributed by the town today.
The company paid $12,795,000 for the 1.5-acre Riverside Avenue property, town records show. The property holds three buildings – a dry cleaner, an auto repair shop and a locksmith. The Franklin Street property, a .37-acre parking lot with 60 spaces, cost $3,250,000, town records show.
The two properties comprise more than half of the 3.4-acre area on the Saugatuck River where Roan had planned the mixed-use development Saugatuck. Many in Westport objected to the Hamlet plan as too large and out of character. It would have included 57 residential and 57 hotel rooms with retail and dining in buildings up to 62 feet high.
Leaders of the Westport Alliance for Saugatuck, which opposed the Hamlet, saw the purchases by Spinnaker as movement in the right direction.
“We take it as a positive sign that an experienced, locally-based developer with a track record of owner/operated developments is now involved in Saugatuck,” the Alliance said in a statement provided by its founder, Dara Lamb. The statement says the Alliance has heard Spinnaker will not pursue a development under the state affordable housing law 8-30G, which gives the local municipality less control over a project.
“This is fantastic news for the community,” the statement said. “We look forward to seeing what they propose.”
Roan had announced an alternate plan to the Hamlet, calling for a denser project of 400-500 units under the less restrictive 8-30g rules, after the town Planning and Zoning Commission rejected the Hamlet proposal last summer. Roan also sued to overturn the rejection on Aug. 6, 2025, in Superior Court in Bridgeport, continuing the battle for the original plan. Last month, the company withdrew the legal action, bringing an end to the Hamlet, but gave no word about the alternate, 8-30G plan.
Roan co-founder and partner Rodrigo Real has not returned a phone call or email seeking comment.
Phone messages to Spinnaker chairman and Chief Executive Officer Clay Fowler, President Kim Morque and the general phone mailbox have not been returned.
Spinnaker is a privately owned commercial real estate company that has developed projects throughout Connecticut and elsewhere. They include Sono Central, a residential and commercial complex in South Norwalk; the Audubon, a three-phase mixed-use project in New Haven; and The Platform, a transit-oriented development of 106 apartments plus commercial space. The project features the historic rehabilitation of an original shirt factory.
Ken Valenti
A career journalist and lifelong resident of the New York City region, Ken Valenti has enjoyed decades of reporting local, regional and national news in New York and Connecticut. Topics of special interest are development, the environment, Long Island Sound and transportation. When not reporting, he’s always on the lookout for the perfect coffee shop or used book sale.
Wow, interesting development! 12.7 million for 606 Riverside, minute man cleaners. I am looking forward to following developments here.
From a townie perspective I can only wonder about the use case list. Provide high end apartments would be the top use case. Big restaurant. Bar night clubby action. It’s not gonna be a gas station, maybe charging stations. If one gets off the train from New York you might want a boutique hotel room with a lounge.
Here is the warning for investors from my old school Westport experience, not to say I know it all, just gut feelings, if there are entertainment venues such as retail and restaurants if it is family friendly it thrives more than just rich guy hang out spots, those never fly. Westport is for kids, investors forget that too often.
Apartments for rich older folks which is the new demo, but old folks who have money don’t really want to be next to the train. So you could have apartments for young new rich upstarts, and start a new scene. However this gets you into the sono trap. People generally are not drinking as much.
I think it’s a good spot for a Tesla showroom /kids restaurant while you charge up, with electric car valet. Imagine getting off the train and you stop in for an American dinner, nothing ethnic, Then the valet pulls your fully charged Tesla right up to the door for you. It has that cool new vinyl wrap. Of course you don’t need the valet because you summon the driverless car with your phone app.
Anyway use cases for commercial property are going through an evolution, but the location is exciting and brilliant minds are probably dreaming up novel ideas. There could be a niche for the elite Bond villain pad, killer super high end apartments, but classy and not too tall. Maybe elite hedge fund space. AI data center/ drone factory & design center. Hospice/ daycare nonprofit storefront. Maybe they will keep the cleaners, locksmith and auto repair.
My ultimate use case would be film studio sound stage with contracts from broadcasters. You could do the news in Westport and reverse commute to NY…
Thoughtful, locally grounded development could be a real asset to the Saugatuck neighborhood.
It also underscores something important that is easy to overlook: the adjacent Cribari Bridge project is currently undergoing federal environmental review. That review is required to evaluate not only existing conditions, but reasonably foreseeable changes in land use and traffic.
With significant redevelopment now underway in the historic maritime village, it would be prudent for CTDOT and FHWA to ensure that traffic patterns—especially between I-95 Exits 18 and 19 as well as 16 and 17—are analyzed with current and forward-looking data, not assumptions from earlier possibly stale studies.
Good planning depends on getting those interactions right.
Hamlet 2.0? Spinnaker took the boutique Hotel idea to their Norwalk waterfront project that just got P+Z approval. Whispers of the button factory…. stay tuned!