Why would a supermarket on Glenville Street put its main entrance on the side away from Glenville Street? When DeCicco & Sons opened on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, at 21 Glenville Street, people turning in found signs pointing them to drive behind the building. The rear lot holds most of the parking, and the rear door is the main entrance. The old entrance on Glenville Street is still open, but it is now the secondary one.
The reason is in the Planning & Zoning record. Behind the building, part of the land was zoned residential until recently. It was rezoned twice, a little more each time, because the grocers the plaza's owner hoped to sign wanted more parking than the site had. The building now faces the parking that made the lease possible. The same patience has shaped the rest of the plaza over more than a decade, starting with the small former post office next to the market.
The Door Follows the Parking
The plaza at 21 Glenville Street covers 6.2 acres. In August 2023, Patch reported that 2.8 of those acres were zoned LBR-2 for local business, and the other 3.4 acres were zoned RA-1 residential. At that point the site had eight retail stores, the empty grocery space, and 118 parking spaces.
Thomas J. Heagney, the attorney for owner Sutton Land LLC, explained the problem to the town without dressing it up. "The owner of the center is actively marketing the space to other shopping center companies," he wrote. "A number of those companies have expressed a concern about the adequacy of the existing parking at the center."
The fix was to turn residential land into commercial land, and that happened in two steps:
| Step | Timing | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Rezoning request filed | August 2023 | Sutton Land LLC asked to rezone 1.9 acres from RA-1 to LBR-2, which would allow 53 more spaces |
| First rezoning approved | December 2023 | P&Z approved rezoning 1.3 acres from residential to commercial for added parking |
| DeCicco lease disclosed | June 25, 2024 P&Z agenda | The owner told the town a lease had been signed with DeCicco & Sons |
| Second rezoning approved | Fall 2024 | Another 9,563 square feet rezoned; parking allowed to grow from 118 spaces to 188 |
The second rezoning followed the first one by less than a year. Greenwich Free Press summed it up in one line: "DeCicco's requirements for parking were even higher." The 188 spaces approved in the fall 2024 vote include 10 ADA spaces and 6 EV charging stations. When the store opened, the expanded parking was at the rear, and the main entrance was there too.
Three Years Without a Supermarket
The gap began in spring 2023. A Stop & Shop spokesperson, Maura O'Brien, told Patch that the Glenville store was not meeting financial expectations and the company would not renew its lease. The store stayed open through June 15, 2023.
DeCicco & Sons opened on September 9, 2026, so Glenville went a little less than 39 months without a supermarket. Greenwich Free Press noted that some residents asked why one grocer replacing another needed Planning & Zoning approval at all. There were two reasons. DeCicco's plan made the building bigger, and the building's volume is over 40,000 cubic feet. Each of those triggers a special permit requirement.
The expansion was a big one. According to the 2024 approval coverage, the supermarket building dates to 1980. DeCicco's plans added 7,777 square feet for:
- an enclosed dumpster and loading dock
- storage and refrigerated storage
- new entrance vestibules at the front and the rear
- the DeCicco signature tower
The new rear vestibule shows up in that 2024 filing, nearly two years before opening day, so the rear entrance was in the plan from the start. The same report said the property owner had granted an easement so traffic control equipment for the planned Glenville corridor traffic improvement project could go on the property.
The finished store has 20,000 square feet of selling space. It is DeCicco & Sons' first location in Connecticut and the family business's first outside New York. That history starts in 1973, when John DeCicco Sr. persuaded his family to buy a small Bronx grocery where he had worked as a delivery boy. Several local officials attended the ribbon cutting, including Selectwoman Rachel Khanna, Selectwoman Lauren Rabin, State Rep. Steve Meskers, State Rep. Hector Arzeno, and Greenwich Chamber of Commerce executive director Andrea Blume. Former State Rep. Livvy Floren, who used to represent the 149th district, which includes Glenville, was also there.
The Smaller Building Took About a Decade
The supermarket building's three-year turnaround looks quick next to the freestanding building beside it. Greenwich Free Press reported in 2014, citing a USPS representative, that the Postal Service had operated on the site since the early 1960s. The post office's lease was due to end in October 2014.
The building's owner, Guy Sutton, did not move the post office out. On September 3, 2014, architect Rudy Ridberg of Ridberg + Associates showed the town's Architectural Review Committee a plan to convert the building to retail facing south. Under that plan the post office would stay but use only part of the building. The application filed with Planning & Zoning described the details. The building would grow from 3,565 square feet to 3,888, with 1,932 square feet kept for USPS and two retail spaces of 990 and 966 square feet. The application appeared on a January 6, 2015 town agenda, and Greenwich Free Press reported that the commission would take it up on February 10, 2015.
The building ended up with four retail spaces and no post office. By 2024, Greenwich Free Press described the conversion as about ten years in the making. The current tenants opened while the grocery space was still empty:
- Luca's Pizzeria and Italian Kitchen opened on Friday, April 12, 2024. Owner Joe Criscuolo named it for his father, Luca, who founded Pizza Post.
- Bluebird Taqueria comes from chef Mike Pietrafeso, with Santiago Juarez as head chef. Its opening announcement ran in December 2024.
- Longford's Ice Cream held its grand opening on April 5, 2025. Christine Santorelli runs the Glenville shop. Ralph Pietrafesa owns the Longford's brand and its Stamford factory.
- Green & Tonic opened on Monday, April 7, 2025. CEO Fausto Mieres said it was the company's eighth location.
Luca's opened more than two years before the grocery space was filled again. Now DeCicco's prepared foods, hot bar, bakery, and deli counter share that parking lot with a pizzeria, a taqueria, a salad bar, and an ice cream shop.
A Second Reopening Down the Street
Glenville Street gets another reopening this week, at No. 50. Abilis Gardens & Gifts holds its grand reopening on Tuesday, October 6, and the First Selectman will present a proclamation recognizing October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
The shop and greenhouse closed for a major renovation in late 2025. Because of that work, the December 3, 2025 holiday Sip & Shop moved to Abilis' main building. The First Selectman's newsletter describes Abilis Gardens & Gifts as an inclusive retail business that offers jobs and vocational training to adults with disabilities. Abilis also staffs the Greenwich Library Café and the Island Beach concession stand.
The two reopenings fall 27 days apart, so a full grocery and a garden and gift shop are back on Glenville Street ahead of the holidays. Abilis closed for its renovation in late 2025. The Stop & Shop space had been empty since June 2023.
Using the Rebuilt Plaza
For a first visit, drive in and follow the signs to the rear lot, which has the most parking and the main entrance. The Glenville Street entrance is still open for anyone arriving on foot. DeCicco's tower stands at the 11 Glen Ridge Road side of the property, which is the address Patch gave for the old Stop & Shop.
Store hours, as listed at the opening:
- Monday through Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
- Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
- Phone, (203) 742-0410
The store's Greenwich page lists every department. Because the shops in the old post office open toward the same lot, an afternoon can include groceries at DeCicco's, a cone at Longford's, and a stop at Abilis at No. 50 Glenville Street, all on the same street.
A rezoning approval can quietly change how a property gets used every day, for a block or for a single lot. At Charles Paternina & Associates, we read Greenwich zoning decisions with the same attention we give a sale price. If you would like to talk through how decisions like the ones at 21 Glenville Street affect your own property, we welcome you to Request a Private Consultation.
