Grand Ave. bakery celebrates face-lift

Tara York , Register Staff 10/21/2003

NEW HAVEN — For more than 20 years, Al and Rose Cimino have been paying taxes on their Grand Avenue business, Apicella’s Bakery.

With a six-foot sandwich, baked ziti and clam chowder, the business couple feasted with city officials at the bakery recently to celebrate the return of their tax dollars through the city and Empower New Haven’s façade improvement grant program.

The city has invested $3 million, and Empower New Haven another $1 million in a façade program that gives businesses incentives to improve their image.

The partnership targets five main commercial centers: Downtown, Grand Avenue, Newhallville, Whalley Avenue and Westville Village.

Apicella’s Bakery and the neighboring New Haven Market are among the first Grand Avenue businesses to improve their storefronts under the program, said Henry Fernandez, economic development administrator.

The Ciminos have expanded to storefronts on each side of their bakery, cleaned and renovated the brick siding, and improved its overall appearance. The project cost more than $60,000. Al Cimino said the city and Empower New Haven gave them about $20,000.

The couple plans to make more improvements, including adding a cafe.

"Twenty-five years ago, Apicella’s was in a back yard on Houston Street, and 20 years ago came to Grand Avenue," Rose Cimino said. "We now have seven trucks and 23 employees. We believe in Fair Haven."

"You’re on a strip that defines Fair Haven," Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said. "You can’t think of Fair Haven without thinking of Grand Avenue. Everything good and decent about the neighborhoods spins off this strip."

Said Althea J. Marshall, the president of Empower New Haven: "When you touch on one business, you end up transforming a block, a neighborhood."

Since the city first earmarked money for the program in 2000, there are 23 completed façade projects and 19 ongoing downtown. The projects total more than $4 million.

On Grand Avenue, there are four completed projects and 18 in the pipeline worth more than $1.28 million; in Newhallville there is one project completed and two in the pipeline that total about $33,964; on Whalley Avenue there are 11 projects in the pipeline at $507,000; and in Westville Village there is one complete project and 11 in the pipeline at more than $3.12 million.

Businesses could be eligible for grants up to $10,000, and another $10,000 in a dollar-to-dollar matching grant. There are also grants of up to $1,500 for design costs.

Tara York can be reached at 789-5714, or tyork@nhregister.com.

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