After nearly 40 years of serving breakfast plates and Salisbury steak to downtown Waterbury, Seven Villages Restaurant is closing its doors on Nov. 6. Owner John Velezis says the building's landlord asked him to vacate the premises earlier this spring, setting in motion the end of a longtime Bank Street fixture.
Velezis told the Stamford Advocate that the landlord sent him a letter earlier this spring notifying him it was time to leave. The restaurant, known for fried eggs, omelets, home fries, ham and pancakes alongside sandwiches, burgers, buffalo chicken salad and soups, has operated as a staple diner in downtown Waterbury for nearly 40 years, according to the same report.
The property at 30 Bank St. is part of Exchange Courtyard, which is owned by the M4 Investment Group, a company associated with the family of Kirk Mariolis, who owns many former office buildings in downtown Waterbury, per the Advocate's reporting. Accounts differ on how the building changed hands: the Advocate reports the Waterbury Board of Aldermen approved a sale of Exchange Courtyard to M4 Investment Group for $585,000 in January 2025, while Hartford Business Journal reports that KAPY Investments LLC and ODA LLC paid $585,000 for the commercial building at 24-30 Bank St. Hartford Business Journal describes Exchange Courtyard as a 23,000-square-foot downtown office and retail property.
Conflicting Plans for the Upper Floors
What happens next to the building is also described differently depending on the source. The Advocate reports the Mariolis family plans to convert the vacant upper floors, currently empty offices, into 24 apartments along with nine retail locations on the ground floor. Hartford Business Journal's account instead describes a plan to create 20 to 25 apartments on the second floor of Exchange Place and refurbish first-floor space into seven to nine retail units. Hartford Business Journal separately reported that Waterbury officials would like to see the 20-30 Bank St. property redeveloped into a mix of housing and retail, and that the project's backer expects to begin work within four months of the sale.
The closure fits into a larger pattern the city has been chasing for years. Per the Advocate, Waterbury aims to transform its downtown into a transit-oriented hub by converting empty office buildings into apartments and upgrading its mass transit facilities. Hartford Business Journal reports more than 100 new downtown apartments are expected to come online in the coming year, with more in the pipeline, and that Bank Street itself, along with its sidewalks and streetscape, is scheduled for a complete cosmetic overhaul in the coming year.
A Train Station Overhaul and a Push for New Restaurants
The city's ambitions extend to its rail infrastructure as well. The Advocate reports the redevelopment of the Waterbury Train Station at Union Station on Meadow Street is projected to cost $35.2 million, with plans for a new 350-foot ADA-compliant high-level boarding platform able to accommodate four-car trains, real-time arrival displays and a 1,600-square-foot indoor passenger waiting area with restrooms and seating.
Waterbury Economic Development Director Joe McGrath told the Advocate there are currently no vacancies downtown and that the city wants to bring in more restaurants and delis, adding that Waterbury has other restaurant locations available to rent. McGrath said he expects the city to meet its goal of 1,000 apartments downtown within the next year-and-a-half to two years.
Part of a Wider Wave of Connecticut Closures
Seven Villages is one of several popular eateries in Connecticut to announce its closure this year, according to Patch. The longtime East Hartford landmark eatery Triple A Diner permanently closed earlier this year after nearly 70 years, Patch reports, and in June, popular downtown Hartford restaurant and nightlife venue ONE Bar + Kitchen closed after serving the community for nearly three years. For now, Waterbury diners have just a few weeks left to grab a plate at Seven Villages before the Bank Street storefront goes quiet for good on Nov. 6.
