Fairfield Commercial Property Declared A Blight

FAIRFIELD, CT — The vacant, former Joe’s American Bar & Grill site in Fairfield was declared a blighted property on Monday by the town’s Board of Condemnation/Blight.

Located at 750 Post Road, the property has been vacant since at least January 2020, according to the Fairfield Health Department. Its windows are boarded up, grass has overgrown much of the property, some of the building’s siding is falling down, and a dilapidated chain-link fence surrounds the perimeter.

“It meets the definition of blight,” said Fairfield Assistant Fire Chief and Fire Marshal Philip Higgins, Jr., the board’s chair.

Under the town’s ordinances, a real property is considered blighted if the parcel, “including any building or structure located thereon, which is and continues to be in a state of disrepair or is becoming dilapidated.”

Mark Barnhart, the town’s director of Community and Economic Development, told the board that he has reached out to the property’s owner, listed in town records as Las Vegas-based 750 Post Road Associates LLC, but had not heard back.

“I heard that they were going to pull a building permit, but I have not seen one,” Barnhart said.

According to town records, the property is appraised at $3,256,800, and assessed at $2,279,760 for local tax purposes. The current owners bought the property for $3.9 million in October 2020.

With the blight declaration, the owners have 30 days to clean up the property, but the board does not meet until September, according to Higgins, which will give the owners an extra 30 days to comply.

If the property is not cleaned up by the board’s next meeting, the board could vote to cite the property, which will mean fines of $100 per day until the property is in compliance.

“Within that timeframe, hopefully it will be cleaned up,” Higgins said.