CORRECTION: Hamden Center II’s address was incorrect in a previous version, as was an accompanying photo.
For the second time in three years, Hartford’s renowned Mozzicato family of bakers is branching beyond their home turf.
Owners of the original Mozzicato-DePasquale Bakery at 329 Franklin Ave., in the city’s South End, are preparing to open within weeks their newest café-bakery at the Wallingford site of a former Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, at 731 N. Colony Road.
“It’s a good community,” said project manager Rino Mozzicato, adding that the availability of a food-service-equipped locale along Wallingford’s busiest commercial corridor was a plus.
Meantime, the family’s Rocky Hill retail strip center on Cromwell Avenue is getting a facelift and a new anchor tenant — Farmington Bank.
The 2,800- square-foot North Colony Road location will have indoor café seating for about a dozen, with outdoor seating day or night for a similar number, to nosh on pastries and sip cappuccinos and other sweets.
The family is investing much more than the approximately $650,000 paid for the former restaurant, Rino Mozzicato said, without elaborating. Opening is set for late October, early November. The KFC opened in the ’90s and closed shortly after the Mozzicatos bought the location from seller Robert Fulmer of North Carolina, Rino Mozzicato said.
In June 2010, the family opened their first location outside Hartford, in Plainville, in a 1.4-acre mini-shopping plaza the Mozzicatos built on the corner of New Britain (Route 372) and Grant avenues. Farmington Bank was among their first tenants.
Between 12 and 15 workers are being hired to staff the newest location. On top of that, the Hartford bakery is adding an unspecified number of extra workers, Rino Mozzicato said, to accommodate the Plainville bakery’s growing sales. Baked goods are prepared in Hartford and delivered to Plainville.
Rino Mozzicato’s parents — father Gino, an Italian immigrant, and mother Gisella — opened Mozzicato Bakery in 1973. In 1975, the family bought neighboring De Pasquale Bread Shop that had been in business seven decades.
In Rocky Hill, the family’s 6,000-square-foot retail center at 366 Cromwell Ave., which they’ve owned since the early ’90s, is undergoing a full remodel. Work includes roofline, exterior and interior improvements, and repaving the parking lot.
Farmington Bank will occupy renovated endcap space that was once a florist, joining tenants restaurant-caterer Steve’s Place and Battiston’s dry cleaners, Bank officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Rino Mozzicato declined to specify a renovation pricetag.
“It’s more than I’d like to spend,” he said.
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Ex-N. Britain Walmart sold
Two New Britain commercial buildings, one of which once housed Walmart, have sold for $1.65 million.
Both sit on a nine-acre tract at 643 Farmington Ave. The larger, 85,000-square-foot building was a Walmart. The other, 2,470-square-foot property was occupied by Bank of America, officials said.
Axela Development Corp. bought the property from ECP New Britain LLC.
Matthews Commercial Properties worked both sides of the deal. Matthews also was hired to lease the property.
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Turtle & Hughes’ Hamden lease
Turtle & Hughes Integrated Supply leased 5,500 square feet on the fifth floor of Hamden Center II office tower, 2321 Whitney Ave.
Press/Cuozzo Realtors was sole broker.
Turtle & Hughes Integrated Supply is a unit of Turtle & Hughes Inc., of Linden, N.J., engaged in electrical and industrial supply, datacomm systems, among other businesses.
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Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal News Editor.
