In the first week of October, two downtown Rye cafés went in opposite directions. RéUnion Bakery & Coffee began serving on a soft-open basis inside the long-vacant former TD Bank at 42 Purchase Street. The old walk-in safe now holds the restrooms, and pastry chef Alexis Grea's kitchen is in view at one end of the room. Around the corner, La Petite Bretagne closed its nearly year-old crêperie at 3 Purdy Avenue, and the Rye Record reported that the original La Petite Bretagne in Mamaroneck is still open.
It reads like ordinary café churn. Rye's downtown already has maman, Sunshine Coffee Roasters, Winfield Street Coffee, The Granola Bar, Le Pain Quotidien and Starbucks, all named in that same story. But the turnover on Purdy Avenue goes deeper than its storefronts, and the rules for what replaces them are being written over three days at the Rye Free Reading Room, starting Monday.
One short block, four addresses in flux
Purdy Avenue is barely a block long, and almost every storefront on it is affected by a project that's either finished, underway or planned.
- 12 Purdy Ave. is the finished model. Real estate firm A5MK put it up in 2022: six apartments over three commercial spaces, with an elevator and a rooftop deck. Saigon Table and Sunshine Coffee Roasters opened on the ground floor in 2024.
- 11–15 Purdy Ave. is the one still in progress. MM Real Estate Partners won a Zoning Board variance in September 2024 for eight two-bedroom apartments over storefronts, plus eight indoor parking spaces. Town Dock closed there in June 2024 after 27 years. The Rye Record reported that work resumed in September. Building inspector Guy Carpenito attributed the earlier pause to underground water and redesign work.
- 2–8 Purdy Ave. is the next one. A company called 84-86 Purchase Street LLC bought this building and the corner building on Purchase Street in January for $5 million. It plans to renovate 84–86 Purchase and demolish 2–8 Purdy for a new building with three ground-floor commercial spaces and five two-bedroom apartments with elevator access.
- 3 and 8 Purdy Ave. are recent vacancies. La Petite Bretagne closed at No. 3, and Aly & Joshua closed its shop at No. 8 after 22 months and now sells online.
Taken together, the block is moving from older walk-ups toward an elevator-building template of apartments over storefronts, a short walk from the Metro-North station.
The longest-running tenant affected is Su Misura. Julio Tepan, a master tailor, opened the shop at 4 Purdy Ave. in 2000. His son Fernando grew up in the shop and came back to run it in 2018 after serving in the Marine Corps and earning a fashion degree. According to the Rye Record's Oct. 16 story, he has signed a five-year lease, with an option for five more, on a second-floor space at 43 Theodore Fremd Ave. He says the space gives him room for wedding-season work and his own designs. So Su Misura is staying in Rye, just up a flight of stairs on Theodore Fremd.
Purchase Street is changing the other way
A few doors away, the turnover looks different. New tenants are moving into buildings that are staying put.
RéUnion is the clearest example. Owner James Kim spent two years turning the former bank into a café approved for 84 seats, which makes it downtown's largest café, with a coffee roasting room the public can see. Kim's family has owned the building for decades. His parents opened Belle Cleaners in Rye in 1984, and the family kept property on Purchase Street after selling that business. The pastry case includes pain au chocolat, raspberry croissant tartelettes and a flat savory pastry with ham and Comté, and the café serves breakfast, coffee, lunch and soft serve from early morning to late afternoon.
The same pattern runs down the street:
- Framebridge opened at 27 Purchase St. on Sept. 12, in the space that used to be Gentlemen's Grooming Lounge.
- The Rye Pub at 3 Elm Place, which the Rye Record calls a century-old establishment, reopened June 25 under new owners after closing in January.
- An American-style bistro, The Peningo Club, is planned for 22 Elm St. by the end of 2026. The site has been vacant for about two years.
An August Rye Record feature on Purchase Street boutiques profiled Baxter, The Stand, Sartina, Village Mercantile and Palmer & Purchase alongside two long-timers. Rye Country Store started in the 1940s as Rye Meat Market, and Rye Camera Shop is nearing its 80th year. On Purchase Street, the shops have changed while the buildings have stayed the same. On Purdy Avenue, the buildings are what's changing.
Why the city paused, and why it matters for Purdy
On June 8, the Rye City Council voted 5–2 for a six-month moratorium. It covers certain development in the central business district, the building and teardown of one- and two-family houses in the B-1 and B-2 districts next to downtown, and multifamily buildings with six or more units. The clock started when the law was filed with the New York Secretary of State, which the city attorney expected the following week, so the pause is set to run into December. The local law also lets the council extend it by up to 180 days if it finds more time is needed. The 2–8 Purdy project has not been before a city board since April. Rye also hasn't revised its master plan in more than 40 years, though that work is now underway.
Harrison, next door, gives a sense of scale. Its Avalon development put 143 apartments and 27,000 square feet of retail on Metro-North parking lots downtown. The Purdy Avenue projects are much smaller: five apartments at one address, eight at another. At that size, how a building looks from the sidewalk matters more than how many units it holds, and that's the gap the city says it wants to close.
City Manager Brian Shea told the Rye Record:
"A building can comply with our zoning regulations and still be out of character with the surrounding downtown. We want to address that by establishing clearer expectations for building design, particularly as properties are redeveloped in the years ahead."
That follows from the 2025 findings of the city's Central Business District Development Review Committee. The committee found that existing zoning generally supports downtown's scale but that design guidance was needed on building massing, architectural features and how new buildings fit the streetscape. The guidelines that come out of this work are meant to shape how redevelopment downtown looks from the street.
This is a summary of public reporting and general information, not legal advice. Property owners with a project in the affected districts should confirm how the moratorium applies with the City of Rye or their own attorney.
The three days that set the template
Planning consultant Yard & Company is running Downtown Rye Design Week with the city. The goal is updated design guidelines and zoning recommendations for the central business district. Between the two public sessions, the team will review current zoning, study representative downtown properties and draft early concepts.
| When | Where | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Mon., Oct. 26, 5:30–7:30 p.m. | Rye Free Reading Room | Open-house Design Lab & Mixer on building character, storefronts, pedestrian connections and public spaces |
| Tue., Oct. 27 | Consultant work day | Yard & Company drafts preliminary concepts |
| Wed., Oct. 28, 5:30–7:30 p.m. | Rye Free Reading Room | Concepts presented for feedback on height, scale, setbacks, storefronts and streetscape |
| Open now | downtownryedesign.com | Online survey with an interactive map for marking specific locations |
Mayor Josh Nathan called downtown "where we gather, shop, dine, and connect with one another." For anyone who uses Purdy Avenue and Purchase Street every week, here's what to bring to the labs:
- A specific storefront you'd want copied. The 12 Purdy building is a recent local example of ground-floor shops under apartments, and you can point to it directly.
- A spot on the map. The survey lets you mark exact locations, so name the corner of Purchase and Purdy instead of "downtown" in general.
- A view on setbacks and height. These are the Oct. 28 topics, and they'll shape how the 2–8 Purdy replacement sits next to its neighbors.
- A note about pedestrian connections. The walk between the train station, Purdy Avenue and Purchase Street is on the agenda for the first session.
The design guidelines are tied to the city's comprehensive plan, which will set a broader long-term vision for Rye. Design Week covers only the central business district.
By the time the moratorium is due to end, the season will have turned. The city's free Holiday Bonfire & Sing Along is Sunday, Dec. 6, at Recreation Park, with an entertainer at 4 p.m. and the bonfire at 5 p.m. The ideas gathered at the Rye Free Reading Room next week will feed into the design guidelines the city is writing during the pause.
I watch downtown Rye the way neighbors do, one storefront at a time. If you're weighing how changes on Purdy Avenue and Purchase Street might affect a home nearby, Kamala Vittal is glad to go through it with you. Let's Connect.
