A developer wants to tear down 66 apartments on the western edge of Greenwich and replace them with a six-story, 176-unit residential building that would stand twice the height allowed under current zoning.

Putnam Green Holding LLC filed a pre-application with the Greenwich Planning & Zoning Commission to demolish four three-story multifamily buildings at 7 and 9 Western Junior Highway and construct the new building over a two-level parking garage, according to Patch. The applicant is invoking Connecticut's 8-30g affordable housing statute, which allows developers to bypass local zoning rules to build projects that include below-market-rate units. A special permit is also being sought.

Attorney John Tesei, representing the developer, wrote in the filing that the project would "remove the existing buildings, formally merge the lots and construct a six-story multifamily residential building over a two-level parking garage pursuant to Connecticut General Statutes Section 8-30g."

What's proposed vs. what's there now

The two parcels, totaling 2.7 acres in the R-PHD-SU zone, currently hold four buildings with 66 units and 66 bedrooms across 52,026 square feet of floor area. The existing structures stand 42½ feet tall with 79 parking spaces.

The height would double. The proposed building would rise to 80 feet, well above the 40-foot zoning limit, and contain 176 units with 216 bedrooms in roughly 116,700 square feet, with approximately 200 parking spaces split between 160 garage spots and 40 surface spaces.

Under the 8-30g set-aside structure, 30% of the units above the number allowed as-of-right would be restricted as affordable.

The property's backstory

The complex, originally built in 1976 as Putnam Green, features 28 studios and 38 one-bedroom apartments. It sold in June 2025 for $20.7 million, which commercial real estate firm ConnectCre described at the time as the largest multifamily transaction in Greenwich since the 2012 sale of Milbank Commons, according to Greenwich Free Press. The property is currently branded as ARIUM at Greenwich Place.

The pre-application was filed less than a week after Superior Court Judge Claudia A. Baio dismissed a developer's challenge to Greenwich P&Z's conditions on Chilston Court, another 8-30g project on Mason Street. In her Aug. 10 ruling, Baio found the commission's modifications were "not arbitrary, illegal, or an abuse of its discretion," according to Greenwich Time.

That decision gives P&Z clear legal backing to impose conditions on 8-30g approvals, including requirements that affordable units be at least 90% the size of comparable market-rate units.

The Western Junior Highway proposal is the third 8-30g project to come before Greenwich P&Z in recent years, following Chilston Court and a Benedict Court development already under construction.

What happens next

No P&Z meeting date had been scheduled for the pre-application review as of Sunday, Aug. 16. The applicant has requested the earliest available slot.