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Norwalk Businesses Need to Clear Out, Now

NORWALK, Conn. – The deadline has passed and Norwalk's "shoe guy" is feeling uncertain. On Wednesday night, Joe Ancona, owner of Economy Shoe Repair on West Avenue for 42 years, said, "I don't know if I'm in business next week or not." On Thursday, Ancona asked a customer, "Do you have my new address, in case I move?"

Ancona and his friend Maria Migliaccio, proprietor of Sonny's Pizza, have run out of time. Both signed papers saying that Thursday, Dec. 15, would be their last day as tenants in buildings to be demolished to make way for the Waypointe development. Both are still there.

Migliaccio plans to get her things out Sunday with the help of friends in a daylong work party. She said Paxton Kinol, a managing director of Bellpointe Capital who has been working with the tenants, has arranged for her to store her equipment in warehouse space on Merwin Street, "two doors down." She is thankful.

Migliaccio hasn't decided where she might reopen Sonny's Pizza. On Wednesday night, she optimistically headed out to look into yet another possibility but said Thursday it wouldn't work. Kinol had just been to visit, reminding her of space available across the street. He said she might be able to get a grant.

A place in East Norwalk might work out, and she has compiled a mailing list of customers so she can let people know when she lands on her feet.

Kinol has also been trying to help Ancona and promised him space in Loehman's Plaza, which is owned by Seligson Properties, a partner in the Waypointe deal. That did not work out. So last Friday, Ancona looked at a space at 18 Wall St., decided he liked it and made a verbal commitment to move in.

But then he was handed a 31-page lease to sign. He was stunned. "I've never signed a lease in my life. Back then it was a handshake," he said. "They never had to chase me for their pay, either."

He feels pressured to move out, but the lease is a bit much. "How can I rush?" he said Wednesday. He said he hadn't been sleeping much and was upset.

On Thursday, a customer who is a lawyer looked over the lease and told him not to worry. Ancona said he felt a little better — but just a little.

Ancona and Migliaccio have much in common: Both have worked in their West Avenue businesses since they were children. Ancona's father started Economy Shoe Repair in 1911. Migliaccio's father started Sonny's in the '80s. Now 36, she has been part of Sonny's since she was 11 or 12.

"She and her brother are like family," said Ancona. "I knew the kids since they were little."

"He's like a father," said Migliaccio.

Now they have getting evicted in common.

Both Migliaccio and Ancona say that Why Not Silvias, a hair salon on the block, has until mid-January to move out. Ancona wonders why he has to be out this week if his next-door neighbor doesn't. "I should have gotten a lawyer," he said over and over again Wednesday.

Kinol was not available for comment. His secretary referred questions to the firm's lawyer, Stephanie McLaughlin of Stamford, but she did not return a phone call.

Ancona doesn't know what life has in store. "Maybe they'll let me stay next week, maybe not," he said. "I'm the bad guy now. I'm holding up the procedure."

Nevertheless, Ancona says Kinol and Stillwater Investments want to help him. If he signs the lease for 18 Wall St., workers will replace the floor in the new shop at no cost to him, and they will move all of his belongings over there and set them up.

The dark cloud, besides the legalese, is that the new place is much more expensive than the space his father's store occupied. It's a three-year lease, and the rent will go up midway through it.

The cloud's silver lining? "I'd like to thank the customers," he said. "I've been touched by the silver lining on the cloud, all the people who have expressed concern. It makes you feel good."

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