The old TD Bank at 42 Purchase Street has a new use for its walk-in safe. It now holds the restrooms at RéUnion Bakery & Coffee. RéUnion soft-opened in early October in a building that had sat vacant for a long time, and it is approved for 84 seats. That makes it the largest café in downtown Rye, according to the Rye Record.
About a block away on Purdy Avenue, three storefronts that were open in the spring have closed or are about to. A fourth address is a construction site.
This fall's changes downtown sort by street. On Purchase Street, long-vacant spaces got new tenants. Purdy Avenue lost tenants. Some left because of competition, and others are leaving because Purdy Avenue is where downtown's redevelopment plans are concentrated. In June the City Council put a moratorium on larger downtown development applications, which means the corner where the two streets meet will probably look about the same through the holiday season as it does today.
Purchase Street got three new places to stop
RéUnion Bakery & Coffee, 42 Purchase Street. Owner James Kim spent two years planning the café, in a building his family has owned for decades. Pastry chef Alexis Grea runs a kitchen you can see from the counter. Early offerings included pain au chocolat, raspberry croissant tartelettes and a savory flatbread with ham and Comté. A roasting room at the other end of the building is also visible from the floor. Kim told the Rye Record the café would run from early morning to late afternoon, serving breakfast, lunch and soft-serve ice cream. In its October 4 story, the paper said customers were already coming in on a soft-opening basis and that Kim expected the official opening by the end of that week.
maman, 64 Purchase Street. The bakery-café opened on July 23, according to the Rye Record.
Framebridge, 27 Purchase Street. The framing chain opened on September 12 in the former Gentlemen's Grooming Lounge space. Its gallery wall has a few Rye-specific pieces, including a felt Rye Beach pennant and a watercolor of City Hall and the library, the Rye Record reported.
With two new cafés, downtown coffee now spans much of the walk from the station to City Hall. Kim listed his competition as maman, Sunshine Coffee Roasters, Winfield Street Coffee, The Granola Bar, Le Pain Quotidien and Starbucks.
One more opening is on the way, around the corner on Elm Street. The Peningo Club, an American bistro run by Alban Gashi, is scheduled to open by the end of 2026 at 22 Elm St., according to the Rye Record. The space has been empty for about two years. Morgan's Fish House ran there for 12 years until 2019, and Meso Mediterranean Cuisine opened there in December 2020 and lasted three years. Gashi's father, Sergio, operates Sergio's Saw Pit in Port Chester but will not be involved in the new restaurant.
Purdy Avenue, door by door
Purdy Avenue is a short street, but this fall it has more open questions than anywhere else downtown. Here is where each address stands, based on Rye Record reporting from September and October 2026.
| Address | What was there | Where it stands this fall |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Purdy Ave. | La Petite Bretagne creperie | Closed in late September, about a year after opening. The original location in Mamaroneck is still open. |
| 4 Purdy Ave. | Su Misura, custom tailor since 2000 | Moving to a second-floor space at 43 Theodore Fremd Ave. |
| 8 Purdy Ave. | Aly & Joshua clothing store | Closed after 22 months. Still sells online. |
| 11-15 Purdy Ave. | Former Town Dock site | Construction resumed in September |
| 12 Purdy Ave. | New building completed in 2022 | Saigon Table and Sunshine Coffee Roasters, open since 2024 |
La Petite Bretagne's owner, Jihaad Alyusif, told the Rye Record the Purdy Avenue shop had been breaking even. He said that with well-funded competitors arriving downtown, keeping it open was no longer worth it to him.
Su Misura has been at 4 Purdy since Julio Tepan opened it in 2000. His son Fernando has run it since 2018. Fernando Tepan signed a five-year lease, with an option for five more, at 43 Theodore Fremd Ave. He told the Rye Record the new space gives him room for more wedding-season work and his own designs. The developer that now owns 4 Purdy has asked him to stay at the old storefront for another six months, so the shop may keep operating on Purdy for a while yet.
12 Purdy, built in 2022 by A5MK, shows what the street could look like once rebuilt. It has six apartments over three ground-floor commercial spaces, with an elevator and a rooftop deck. Saigon Table and Sunshine Coffee Roasters moved in on the ground floor in 2024.
Why 11-15 Purdy is moving and the corner is not
Two projects sit on either side of Purdy Avenue, and they are on different timelines.
11-15 Purdy Ave. MM Real Estate Partners combined three addresses into one 6,000-square-foot parcel. In September 2024 it won a Zoning Board variance for eight two-bedroom apartments over storefronts, plus eight indoor parking spaces. The Town Dock closed there in June 2024 after 27 years. After the old buildings came down last December, the developer found underground water on the site, according to Rye building inspector Guy Carpenito. Construction stopped for months while the plans were redesigned without a basement. Work started again in September. This project was approved before the pause, which is why it is under construction.
84-86 Purchase Street and 2-8 Purdy Ave. In January, a developer called 84-86 Purchase Street LLC bought both buildings for $5 million. Its plan is to renovate 84-86 Purchase and replace 2-8 Purdy with a new mixed-use building: three ground-floor commercial spaces and five two-bedroom apartments with elevator access. Those would replace six one-bedroom units that the developer says don't meet current accessibility codes. Today the two buildings hold 11 units: Sarza, Verizon, the former Aly & Joshua space, Su Misura, and the apartments upstairs. Sarah Briginshaw has run Sarza, the home furnishings store at 84 Purchase, for nine and a half years. She is negotiating a new lease.
That application is on hold. On June 8, 2026, the City Council voted 5-2 to adopt a six-month moratorium on development in the central business district. The law is Local Law No. 3 of 2026. It applies to applications that propose demolishing more than 300 square feet or increasing floor area by more than 10% in the B-2 district or B-1 areas next to it, and to proposals for six or more multifamily units. Emergency repairs are exempt, as are applications tied to the Osborn Home. The six months run from the date the law took effect, and the Council can extend the moratorium by up to 180 days by resolution. No extension was on the Council's agenda as of its October 21 meeting. The Rye Record reported in October that the Purdy Avenue project had not been before a city board since April.
This is a general summary for neighbors following the project. Property owners with a pending application should get advice on their own situation from a land-use attorney.
What the pause is for
The city is using the moratorium to rewrite the rules for downtown. Rye has not revised its master plan in more than 40 years, according to the Rye Record. Mayor Josh Nathan told the paper the work reflects "our commitment to preserve the character of our downtown while supporting the kind of progress that enhances a robust downtown environment."
The design work picks up a 2025 report from the city's Central Business District committee. It found that existing zoning generally fits downtown's scale, but that more guidance was needed on building massing, architectural features, and how new buildings fit the streetscape. The city hired the planning firm Yard & Company to write those guidelines. The city scheduled Downtown Rye Design Week for October 26 to 28 at the Rye Free Reading Room, with two public Community Design Labs, the Rye Record reported. Yard & Company is expected to refine its recommendations based on that input and bring them to the Council later.
The new guidelines will shape the next proposal for the corner of Purdy and Purchase. Until they are adopted, Purdy Avenue will keep its mix of open shops, closed shops and one active construction site.
Seeing all of it on November 19
The next good time to walk the whole stretch is the Rye Chamber of Commerce's second annual Holiday Stroll. The Chamber says the evening will include in-store events, restaurant specials, live music, food trucks, children's crafts, and a tree lighting on the Village Green with Light Up Rye and Children's Philanthropy. Visitors are invited to walk Purchase Street and see the lights and decorated storefronts. The Friends of Rye Nature Center lists the event for Thursday, November 19, from 5 to 8 p.m.
A route that covers this fall's changes:
- Start at Framebridge, 27 Purchase Street, and look for the Rye Beach pennant on the gallery wall.
- Walk up to RéUnion at 42 Purchase. It is planned as a daytime café, so this stop may be just a look through the windows of the old bank building.
- Continue to maman at 64 Purchase.
- Turn onto Purdy Avenue to see Saigon Table and Sunshine Coffee at 12 Purdy, the 11-15 Purdy construction site across the street, and Su Misura at 4 Purdy, which may still be at its old address.
- End at the Village Green for the tree lighting.
If you want a daytime visit first, Down to Earth's Rye Farmers Market runs Sundays from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. through November 22 in Car Park 2 at 44 Theodore Fremd Avenue, behind the Purchase Street stores. Su Misura's new address, 43 Theodore Fremd Ave., is on the same street.
If you own a building downtown or a home nearby and want to know how the new design guidelines and the Purdy Avenue projects could affect your property's value, Andrew Rogovic can walk you through recent local sales. Request a Free Home Valuation.
