🔒Growing CT e-commerce auto-parts dealer eyes new Milford HQ

A Connecticut developer is looking to buy three Milford office properties owned by sandwich franchise giant Subway, and redevelop the area into a new multibuilding industrial/office campus for a local e-commerce auto-parts distributor.

Robert Scinto, of Shelton-based R.D. Scinto Inc., said he is planning to buy the properties — at 330, 325 and 336 Sub Way — for an undisclosed sum “in the eight figures.”

The property at 325 Sub Way is the international sandwich-making company’s current 90,000-square-foot headquarters. Subway, which has a dual headquarters in Miami, has announced plans to relocate in September to a Shelton corporate office space, also owned by Scinto.

His plans call for demolishing the corporate headquarters building and erecting a new 160,000-square-foot distribution center. He would also renovate two buildings at 330 and 336 Sub Way, then lease the three-building campus to Milford-based FCP Euro, which sells auto-parts online to vehicle owners who do their own repairs.

FCP Euro’s customers are owners of BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagen, Volvo, Land Rover and Jaguar vehicles.

The company currently runs operations in two Milford locations, totaling 105,000 square feet, in the Hill Street Business Park and a leased warehouse along Bic Drive that has low-bay ceilings.

The redeveloped campus would contain the new warehouse with 20 loading bays and higher ceilings to allow for more storage and distribution capabilities. It would also feature a renovated 45,000-square-foot corporate office building, and a remodeled 25,000-square-foot production studio to make instructional videos for car owners to install parts.

FCP Euro President and Founder Nick Bauer said he has been looking for a larger and more centralized facility since “the company has been growing steadily for the past 23 years, and we are out of space.”

Bauer said FCP is on track to reach $1 billion in revenue in the next five to seven years.

The company has 245 employees, and Bauer said he anticipates growing the staff as the distribution operation expands.

Scinto estimates the entire project — building the new facility and renovating the smaller properties — will cost more than $20 million.

He said it’s more cost-effective to demolish the main Subway building instead of renovating because the office space was designed exclusively for the sandwich maker.

“There’s a lot of empty office space in Milford, the building has to be taken down,” Scinto said. “New buildings are very economical, and it’s hard to find space,” for manufacturing and distribution.