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Hartford Family Bakery Expands To Plainville

DEAL WATCH

Greg Seay

April 19, 2010

The Mozzicato family is adding their sweet touch to real estate development in Plainville, where they are building their first retail bakery outside of Hartford.

Barring any construction hitches, the owners of the Mozzicato-De Pasquale Bakery in Hartford’s South End will open around June its second full-service bakery and café in a mini-shopping plaza being built on the corner of New Britain (Route 372) and Grant avenues.

“We’re moving right along,’’ said Rino Mozzicato, the youngest of three second-generation operators — along with their parents — of the family bakery and the project’s leader.

Mozzicato said he acquired the 1.4-acre site last year with expansion in mind. He declined to reveal the cost of the land, fixtures and equipment, but put the price tag to erect the buildings and install infrastructure on the site at about $2 million.

The Plainville bakery will be a full-service shop that will anchor and occupy about half the 5,000-square-foot main building on the site. The remaining space will be carved into two leasable spaces of about 1,100 square feet each, said Rino Mozzicato.

On the east side of the property, a branch of Farmington Bank will lease a 3,000-square-foot free-standing building from the Mozzicatos, he said. Farmington Bank also is financing the project.

John Patrick, Farmington Bank chairman and CEO, said the new Plainville location fits with the bank’s strategic plan to expand its 12-branch central Connecticut network with three new offices a year through 2011.

Last week, the bank debuted in Glastonbury the first of its three branches that will open this year. Ground will break soon on the third, in Berlin, Patrick said.

The bank’s second Plainville office, is within four miles of its branch at 117 East St. “that is bursting at the seams,’’ he said. The new office should relieve some of the heavy transaction volume at the existing Plainville location as well as another office in New Britain, Patrick said.

The Mozzicatos’ dream of a suburban bakery, he said, presented the bank with both a leasing and financing opportunity, Patrick said.

The Mozzicatos aren’t strangers to expanding in weak economies. Gino and Gisella Mozzicato opened their bakery in 1973, and two years later, amid a recession, acquired neighboring De Pasquale Bread Shop.

In late 2008, with the U.S. and local economy in a tailspin, the family bought North End Hartford cheesemaker-distributor Sam Maulucci & Sons following the death of its patriarch. The cheese business continues to expand and recently added grocer Stop & Shop as a wholesale customer, Rino Mozzicato said.

Several other suburban sites, including the Farmington Valley, were considered for the second bakery, he said.

Finally, the family settled on the Plainville location amid a cluster of retail and commercial development, including Lowe’s home improvement center, Kohl’s clothing store, car dealerships and a slew of casual-dining and fast-food restaurants.

Customer demand was a factor, Mozzicato said.

“A lot of customers in that area do come to Franklin Avenue,’’ he said. “Even customers who don’t come to Franklin Avenue as much wanted us there.’’

Borghesi Building & Engineering Co. Inc. in Torrington is the designer and contractor.