Right now, an enormous (though colorful) construction fence defines downtown. It — along with bulldozers and other equipment — will be there for another year and a half, as Church Lane and environs is transformed into Bedford Square.
But the end result should be worth it. Fears that the former Tudor-style YMCA Bedford Building on the Post Road/Main Street corner would go the way of the much-less-loved cement Weeks Pavilion (it’s already been demolished) were allayed yesterday.
Bedford Square Associates unveiled a rendering of the 40,000 square-foot anchor tenant, Anthropologie. The design retains much of the historic aesthetic of the Bedford Building and adjacent firehouse.
Anthropologie’s new Westport location will offer a clothing store, home store, beauty store with salon, bridal store, and a cafe/restaurant in the base of the old firehouse.
Much of the rest of the 110,000 square-foot retail/office/restaurant/residential complex will be in context with the scale and style of the surrounding neighborhood. It includes concealed parking, wider tree-lined sidewalks, public walkways and large courtyards.
The project will be finished in early 2017. At which point we will finally stop calling it “the old Y.”