This past spring, Toast Wine and Spirits estimated that the work zone on Farmington Avenue had taken about 30 parking spaces out of use. Manager Anthony Bosco told WFSB that customers who just wanted to pop in for a bottle were heading to another package store. Under the town's design summary, the finished Farmington Avenue has 66 angled spaces. Before the pandemic it had 67.
So the permanent cost is one parking space. The temporary cost was about thirty spaces, a whole patio, and close to two seasons of detours. That gap explains the past eighteen months in West Hartford Center. It also explains why new operators kept signing for storefronts while the barricades were still up.
Where the work stands this week
The town's schedule puts tentative completion of the West Hartford Center roadway reconstruction at November 20, 2026. Gerber Construction holds the contract, valued at $9,547,008.25 and paid for with American Rescue Plan Act funds. The November date carries extra weight because of what happened last year. The town barred construction from November 22, 2025 to January 4, 2026 to protect the holiday season.
In its October 12 Business Buzz column, We-Ha.com reported that only a small stretch of sidewalk in front of Sparrow was still blocked, and that Sparrow had put a few tables back outside. The corner of Farmington and South Main was almost finished. The last section of sidewalk demolition, between Barcelona/bartaco and Westfield Bank, was fully underway. The town's October 5 update looked two weeks ahead. Its list included sidewalk pours, drainage, granite curb work, installing a bike rack, and tree-planter prep set for October 12 to 16.
Outdoor tables are the first thing to come back. According to the town's project FAQ, a restaurant can set up dining about 10 days after the concrete is poured in front of it, within sidewalk areas already approved and subject to Planning and Zoning sign-off. That's why the tables return storefront by storefront instead of all at once.
What the fencing took, in the merchants' words
LaSalle Road went first, in 2025. In May of that year, Bean Restaurant Group operations director Vish Badami told CT Insider that Crush Wine Bar had seen 50% fewer seatings over the previous three weeks. He said Union Kitchen had lost about 40 outdoor seats, that the fencing and the pedestrian detour were keeping people away, and that he supported the project for the long term. WFSB reported the same month that both restaurants rely heavily on walk-in customers. That September, Bricco manager Keith Rochel told WFSB that business slowed once parking was removed.
When the crews moved to Farmington Avenue this spring, the merchants there told much the same story. Bob Cooke, senior partner at Max Hospitality, described it to WFSB in May:
"We had 26 seats on the patio so we've lost all those guests and they're going across the street."
In the same interview, Cooke said he expected the finished street to help business: "It's going to be smooth surface. It's going to look great. It's going to look clean."
The trade, line by line
The town's design summaries for the two streets set out the permanent changes:
| LaSalle Road | Farmington Avenue | |
|---|---|---|
| Parking | 107 pre-pandemic to 89 angled/parallel spaces | 67 pre-pandemic to 66 angled spaces |
| Sidewalks | 15 to 20 feet wide | Wider, listed as an average of 5 feet |
| Street trees | 36 to 52 | 38 to 46 |
| Outdoor dining | Some expansion | Expanded |
| Crossings | Shorter crosswalks, raised crosswalks and bumpouts | Shorter crossings, raised crosswalks |
On LaSalle, the trade is real: 18 fewer spaces than before the pandemic, in exchange for sidewalks wide enough to fit tables. On Farmington, the parking count barely changes. The design summary also lists traffic security bollards on LaSalle for festival days. The town's project page adds granite curbs, decorative street lighting, engineered tree pits, landscaping and new street furniture across the project area. The final summary doesn't include a dedicated bike lane. On Farmington, the clearest bike feature is the rack in the October work list.
Storefronts that changed hands while the work went on
All summer, while the fencing was up, We-Ha's weekly columns tracked a steady run of moves on a short stretch of Farmington Avenue:
- 981 Farmington Avenue. Bliss Matcha & Beyond had its soft opening on August 1. Owner Ariel Shi runs the West Hartford branch with a partner.
- 990 Farmington Avenue. Lil Hope moved here from 18 LaSalle Road. The move was done by We-Ha's August 24 column.
- 993 Farmington Avenue. Crêpes Choupette closed for good the week before We-Ha's September 14 column.
- 976–978 Farmington Avenue. Market Hospitality Group co-owners Eli Hawli and Sam DeVellis are building a mixed-use project with two restaurants, Mercato and Blu Pointe, and five apartments upstairs. As of We-Ha's September 21 update, utility upgrades were done and footing work was underway. Hawli expected steel framing to start within weeks and hoped one restaurant would be open by the end of December, with the second soon after.
The 976–978 schedule lines up with the street's. If Hawli's timeline holds, the first restaurant opens about six weeks after the town's tentative completion date. The upper floors would then look out on the wider sidewalks and new trees instead of fencing.
Memorial Road is turning over at the same time
Blue Back Square sits just off the work zone, and its Memorial Road storefronts are churning on their own timeline:
- 67 Memorial Road. Chip City had closed by September 24, and the company later confirmed that all of its locations had closed.
- 87 Memorial Road. Sweatfluence moved its grand opening to October 10, after first announcing September 26. Rachel Gerould is the first West Hartford franchisee of the brand, which was founded by Courtney Del Vecchio.
- 89 Memorial Road. As of September 7, Monmouth Trading Cards hoped to open by the end of October.
- 111 Memorial Road. Demolition is underway in the former Rizzuto's and Gran Gusto space for Nana's Dim Sum & Dumplings. The group has seven locations in Colorado and one in Scarsdale, New York. West Hartford will be its first in Connecticut. No opening date has been reported.
Over the very months the Center was hardest to reach, new operators opened, moved in or started construction there, including a restaurant group that had never been in the state before.
Before the fencing comes down
The October calendar keeps going while the sidewalk crews finish:
- Saturday, October 17, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. ART STOP, the WEHA Artists Emporium market at 35 North Quaker Lane, with local makers and live acoustic music. The rain date is Sunday, October 18.
- Sunday, October 18, 3 p.m. The West Hartford Symphony Orchestra's "Getting to Know You" concert at Northwest Catholic High School, 29 Wampanoag Drive.
- Saturday, October 24, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The West Hartford Halloween Stroll in Blue Back Square and West Hartford Center. The rain date is October 25.
- Sunday, October 25, 5 to 9 p.m. The Autumn Harvest Dinner, a ticketed four-course meal hosted by the Blue Back Farmers' Market and Delamar West Hartford and led by Artisan executive chef Michael Giai.
Last year's Holiday Stroll fell on Thursday, December 4, 2025, with the Blue Back Square tree lighting at 5 p.m. No 2026 date had been confirmed when this was written. If November 20 holds, the Center will host its first holiday season since the project began with both LaSalle Road and Farmington Avenue finished.
Street changes like these shape what nearby homes are worth and how they show to buyers. That holds whether your place is a few blocks from Farmington Avenue or on the shoreline, and it's the kind of detail Jennifer Gurnell follows closely. If you're thinking about how changes in your own town affect a sale or a search, let's connect: start your shoreline search or sale.
