Say goodbye - and good riddance? - to the one-story commercial building at 1254 Storrs Rd., located just across from .
Demolition of the building is expected to begin later this month to make way for another aspect of Storrs Center.
Storrs Center Alliance, LLC, bought the building from the State of Connecticut for $399,607 back in 2011, just over a month before the , according to documents provided by the .
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Built in 1952 as a shopping center, the space most recently served as home to businesses such as , Travel Planners, LLC, , and Storrs Center offices.
The building has largely been emptied over the summer as its demolition looms.
Many of the businesses are relocating to 1 and 9 Dog Ln., two mixed-use buildings that are scheduled to open in mid-August.
“We’ll all gradually move over there as our spaces are completed,” Macon Toledano, vice president of planning and development for Leyland Alliance LLC, said in an interview last month with Mansfield-Storrs Patch.
“As soon as the spaces are emptied out, we’ll be prepared to start the demolition process,” he said. “That would begin over the course of August and probably go into the beginning of September,” Toledano said.
Although plans for what will replace the small strip mall have yet to be finalized, Toledano said the space would be designed to complete the center’s Town Square.
“It’s the third and last piece of the Town Square neighborhood,” Toledano said. “We’re doing some evaluations right now as to what will be the best program for this building,” he said. “The idea is that it would be a building of a similar nature – a mixed-use building – at least one, possibly two,” Toledano said.
With that in mind, and the buildings at 1 and 9 Dog Ln. nearly complete, construction has begun on another side of the square - a mixed-use building adjacent to the parking garage.
“In creating the square, we create a very strong character and continuity around the square to reinforce the strength of the space itself and to really help that public space maintain a strong, recognizable character,” Toledano said.
Construction at the site of 1254 Storrs Rd. is expected to begin next summer.
