New Milford Gets Ready For a Business Boom

Since the pandemic hit, it seems like all we've been telling you about is businesses closing. Great news! That's all about to change in New Milford.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, we have seen one business after another in the Greater Danbury area close their doors for good. New Milford has also been hit hard and a number of local businesses like Hometown Liquors, Bad Dream Brewing, The Makery, and a Dunkin Donuts along with eight other local businesses have all shut their doors.

Now, according to newstimes.com, we're hearing from New Milford's Economic Development Director Karen Pollard that New Milford has added, or are about to welcome 21 new businesses.

Here's what Pollard had to say about this extremely good news for the town:

New Milford was able to take advantage of several factors during these uncertain times, which contributed to its growing business environment. Residents were willing to spend their money locally and stayed home or in town more often due to remote work. The influx of people coming from other, more urban areas helped too.

So, just what did the town do to help avoid a massive exodus of struggling businesses? Here's more of what Pollard had to say:

Many, many businesses in New Milford adapted their business the best they could. Any financial resources that we had or expended in that way, we did, to help businesses adapt. Although more businesses are opening in town, the New Milford economy still faces some challenges. Not every business was able to pivot and that’s where we had some weakness in the economy. The more we can be engaged with that business community, the better they’re going to be able to survive. We still do have months in front of us before we will be feeling that we’ve turned the corner... We’ve really tried to help all businesses through this the best we can and we’re constantly striving to do more.

Here's a quick list of some of the new businesses that will be opening soon.

A Taste of Rio is opening on Danbury Road, another storage facility will also be opening on that same road, Jersey Mike's and Chipotle are set to open in a few weeks, and a new pharmacy will be coming soon to Route 22 taking over where Danbury Dodge used to be.

New Milford Mayor Pete Bass hinted in an e-mail that there's more to come, including a larger business that will be coming soon that will be announced as soon as the company makes the big announcement.