"Rye has changed, but less than everywhere else." That was Christopher Cummins, a 64-year resident who sits on the city's comprehensive plan steering committee, speaking at a Downtown Rye Design Week session at the Rye Free Reading Room in late October, as reported by the Rye Record.
This fall, his line describes two blocks very differently. On Purchase Street, a long-vacant bank building has become the largest café downtown, and new storefronts keep opening. Around the corner on Purdy Avenue, the block nearest the Metro-North station has lost three longtime and newer tenants. Its next chapter is waiting on City Hall's schedule. A public hearing on extending the downtown building moratorium is set for November 18, the night before the Chamber's Holiday Stroll brings everyone back to Purchase Street.
More coffee counters on Purchase Street than ever
The biggest change this fall happened at 42 Purchase Street. James Kim spent two years turning the former TD Bank into RéUnion Bakery & Coffee, which the Rye Record called downtown Rye's largest café. It is approved to seat 84 people. Some of the bank is still there: the old walk-in safe now holds the restrooms. Pastry chef Alexis Grea bakes in a kitchen customers can see from one end of the room, and coffee beans are roasted in a visible roasting room at the other end. The menu runs from pain au chocolat and raspberry croissant tartelettes to a flat savory pastry with ham and Comté. RéUnion serves breakfast, coffee, lunch and soft serve from early morning to late afternoon, and it began welcoming customers in early October.
The building has been in the Kim family for decades. His parents opened Belle Cleaners in Rye in 1984 and later expanded it to five more Westchester and Fairfield County towns. Kim grew up working in the family dry-cleaning business before moving to Southern California. "I am so glad to be back. It is so nice here," he told the Rye Record. "So expensive, but so nice."
RéUnion opens into a crowded field. In the same article, Kim named his competitors within a few blocks: maman, Sunshine Coffee Roasters, Winfield Street Coffee, The Granola Bar, Le Pain Quotidien and Starbucks. The newest of those, maman, opened July 23 at 64 Purchase Street in the former Snackery Bakery space, according to MyRye. Down the street, Framebridge opened at 27 Purchase Street on September 12, in the space that used to be the Gentlemen's Grooming Lounge. Its gallery wall includes a felt Rye Beach pennant and a watercolor of City Hall and the library.
One café closed. La Petite Bretagne, the creperie at 3 Purdy Avenue, shut in late September, just short of its first anniversary. Owner Jihaad Alyusif told the Rye Record the shop had been breaking even, but with well-funded competitors arriving he decided it was not worth keeping open. The original La Petite Bretagne in Mamaroneck is still running.
That closure sent the foot traffic one way. The new seats, ovens and roasters landed on Purchase Street, and the only café to close was the one around the corner on Purdy.
Purdy Avenue, address by address
Purdy Avenue is short, but it holds most of downtown's pending construction. Here is where each address stands, based on the Rye Record's fall reporting.
| Address | What was there | Where it stands this fall |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Purdy Ave. | La Petite Bretagne creperie | Closed late September |
| 4 Purdy Ave. | Su Misura tailor, since 2000 | Moving to a second-floor space at 43 Theodore Fremd Avenue |
| 8 Purdy Ave. | Aly & Joshua clothing | Storefront closed after 22 months; still sells online |
| 2–8 Purdy Ave. with 84–86 Purchase St. | Sarza, Verizon, shops and apartments | Proposed for demolition of 2–8 Purdy and a rebuild; review suspended |
| 11–15 Purdy Ave. | The Town Dock and other businesses | Construction resumed in September |
| 12 Purdy Ave. | New building finished in 2022 | Saigon Table and Sunshine Coffee Roasters downstairs since 2024 |
Su Misura's story shows how long some of these tenancies ran. Julio Tepan, a master tailor, opened the shop at 4 Purdy in 2000. His son Fernando grew up in the shop, served in the Marine Corps, earned a fashion degree, and came back in 2018 to run it, the Rye Record reported. His new address on Theodore Fremd keeps the shop downtown, one floor up and a few blocks away.
The building he is leaving changed hands in January. A company called 84-86 Purchase Street LLC bought it and the building next door on Purchase Street for $5 million. It plans to renovate 84–86 Purchase and replace 2–8 Purdy with a new mixed-use building. The plans filed with the Rye Planning Commission show three ground-floor commercial spaces and five two-bedroom apartments with an elevator. They would replace six one-bedroom units that the developer says do not meet current accessibility codes.
Across the street, the 11–15 Purdy site shows why these projects take time. MM Real Estate Partners won a Zoning Board variance in September 2024 for eight two-bedroom apartments over storefronts, with eight indoor parking spaces. The Town Dock closed that June after 27 years. After the old buildings came down, the developer found underground water on the property. The Rye Record reported that the team paused for months to redesign the building without its planned basement and get the building department's approval, according to building inspector Guy Carpenito. Work started again in September.
The only finished example on the block is 12 Purdy. It went up in 2022 with six apartments over three commercial spaces, an elevator and a rooftop deck, and it filled its ground floor with Saigon Table and Sunshine Coffee Roasters in 2024. From first construction to open storefronts took about two years. Purdy's other two projects are on longer timelines.
Why the corner is running on City Hall's clock
The 2–8 Purdy application is suspended under a city moratorium. On June 8, the Rye City Council voted 5–2 for a six-month moratorium on downtown development, MyRye reported. The text of Local Law No. 3 of 2026 covers qualifying applications in the Central Business District and the B-1 and B-2 districts next to it, plus multifamily buildings of six or more units. The Rye Record reported in October that the 2–8 Purdy proposal had not been before a city board since April.
The pause is meant to give the city time to write downtown design standards first. The law ties it to a June 2025 report from the city's Central Business District committee and to an April 2026 request for proposals for architectural and design standards. That work went public at the end of October. Yard & Company, an Ohio-based urban design studio, ran Downtown Rye Design Week from October 26 to 28 at the library. On the last day it showed renderings built from residents' feedback, and it will now refine its recommendations on building height, zoning, scale, setbacks, storefronts and streetscape design. Participants carried "Design Passports," and the first question in them was "What is missing from Purchase Street?"
Next on the clock is a public hearing. The City Council's November 4 agenda included setting a hearing for the November 18 Council meeting on extending the moratorium until March 31, 2027. If adopted, the extension would keep the moratorium covering the 2–8 Purdy application in place through March 31, 2027.
From the last market Sundays to the Santa mailbox
The hearing falls right in the middle of downtown's busiest stretch of the season. Here is the calendar, in order:
- Sundays, November 15 and 22, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The last two Sundays for Down to Earth's Rye Farmers Market, in the lot off Theodore Fremd Avenue behind the Purchase Street stores.
- Wednesday, November 18. The City Council meeting with the moratorium extension hearing on its agenda.
- Thursday, November 19, 5 to 8 p.m. The Rye Chamber of Commerce Holiday Stroll kicks off the season on Purchase Street. It is free and needs no registration.
- Saturday, November 28. Rye Recreation's Turkey Run: the Paws Walk at 9 a.m., a 1-mile fun run at 9:30 a.m., and a 3.1- or 5.2-mile race or walk at 10 a.m.
- November 30 through December 13. Rye Recreation's "Dear Santa" mailbox, with one at the corner of Elm and Purchase Streets.
The Holiday Stroll fills Purchase Street, where 27, 42 and 64 all have new tenants this year. The Purdy Avenue corner meets Purchase Street at 84–86, and the plans for a different building there are on file and on hold, with the extension hearing on the Council's calendar the night before.
If the changes on Purdy Avenue have you wondering what the corner might become, or what downtown's new design standards could mean for a building you own nearby, I'm glad to talk it through. I follow these Council agendas and Planning Commission filings as closely as I follow the storefronts. Let's Connect with Tom Flynn.
