A Bridge Not Taken

The rumor was enticing:  Jim Magee was coming back to run Peter’s Bridge Market.

Residents of the Saugatuck/Compo area — whose nearest reasonably-priced grocery store options are Super Stop & Shop and Stew Leonard’s — salivated at the news.  Jim’s family owned the Bridge Square market — located across from Mansion Clam House, on the corner of Riverside Avenue and Bridge Street — from 1972 to 2004.  Jim ran it himself until 1995, when he bought Peter’s Weston Market from his dad.

After the Magees sold it, the “Peter”-less Bridge Market lost favor (and raised prices).  Now it’s almost all gone — what remains is a salad bar one flight down in the nearby fish store.

I reached Jim at his Weston home, and relayed the rumor.

“Not true,” he said.  That sound you hear is the dashing of neighborhood hopes.

“I’d love to go back to Westport,” he added.  “The landlord contacted me a couple of times.

“The place needs a lot of time, money and energy.  They were willing to do some things with the infrastructure.  But the rent is way too high.”

He warmed to the subject.  “If the Gaults build something down there, I might be interested.  It’s a nice spot.  But the parking is terrible.  And it’s tough to run a grocery store at $50 a square foot.”

One rumor squelched.  Here’s another:  The space might become a Subway.  Or a Wendy’s.