Millerton Square plaza faces future changes with more vacancies

MILLERTON — Once a bustling business plaza, Millerton Square has faced a number of changes during the past year as businesses bade farewell to their customers and closed their doors for good. Between Riley’s Furniture & Flooring closing up shop last December after 60 years of business to Millerton Fresh Market’s unexpected closure last month, there’s been talk among residents about the future of the plaza and which businesses might occupy the vacant spaces down the road.

Millerton Fresh Market

Among the recent changes, customers were surprised to find that Millerton Fresh Market closed its doors, despite previous reports of the market expanding with new ideas, like establishing a cafe or a fish market inside the store. With “Closed” signs taped to the store windows and communications to the store owners, Chris and Joe Cho, going unanswered, the community must now reevaluate its options for grocery shopping.

While it was confirmed on Monday, June 17, that the store had closed for good, no further details have been disclosed regarding how the Cho family reached its decision to shut down. 

“One of my tenants told me that they got a two-day notice that the store was closing and that they were out of a job,” said Ken Thompson, the owner of Thompson Plaza, which is down the road from Millerton Square. 

Regardless of what led to the end of Millerton Fresh Market, one thing is certain: the town needs a grocery store. There’s been speculation about the possibility of Freshtown in Amenia revisiting plans discussed years earlier to open another store in Millerton. And then there’s been talk of Hannaford Supermarket coming into the village — a number of years ago it was in talks to open a brand new store at Thompson Plaza, but those plans never came to fruition. As of press time, nothing had been confirmed. But a call in to Dan Katz, who owns the Freshtown market with his brother, Noah, did result in an answer.

“Freshtown is looking to renovate its Amenia store,” said Katz, “we’re not going to be moving into Millerton. I can’t comment at this point, it just happened the other week, so we don’t really have anything going on at this point, but we are going to be renovating the Amenia store for sure.”

Thompson, for his part, said he hopes another store does come in, and soon.

“The town really needs that box to be filled,” he said. “I believe this is a true reflection of our Town Board.

“We should have had a Dunkin’ [Donuts], a Subway, a Hannaford in the town already, and they have just chosen to scare everyone away.”

Riley’s Furniture & Flooring

Last December, Riley’s Furniture & Flooring closed. Over the last couple of months, village residents have talked about the possibility of Health Quest Medical Practice moving into the space, though no one at the Health Quest office said the same.

“No one in Health Quest has confirmed in the Town Hall meetings we’ve had — we’ve strictly only heard it from Millerton residents,” said Thomas Rizzo, a site supervisor at Health Quest in Millerton.

Though he wasn’t sure how or when the rumors of Health Quest moving into Millerton Square got started, Rizzo said it would be nice to move up and have a new building. However, he reported that Health Quest’s lease at 37 Century Blvd. is intact and that the practice has no plans of moving at this time, instead continuing its operations at Century Boulevard under the care of Kristie Schmidt, MD.

Trotta’s Discount Liquors

Operating in the space between the former furniture store and grocery store, Robert Trotta, the owner of Millerton Square and Trotta’s Discount Liquors, reported that business is continuing to run smoothly at the plaza’s liquor store. He said business will “undoubtedly continue to do well,”, describing it as a good competitive operation.

Since he first took ownership of the plaza in 1970, Trotta has seen various business ventures come and go, from CVS in the space formerly occupied by Riley’s Furniture to the Grand Union, which predated Millerton Fresh Market. 

As far as what lies ahead for the vacant spaces in the plaza, Trotta said he’s working on it, though he was not at liberty to discuss what those efforts to fill the spaces entail. In terms of his timeline for bringing business back into the plaza, he said, “I’d like to have it done by tomorrow, but you know the reality: these things take time.”