Evelyn Jimenez (second from left) helps cut the ribbon on J&M Home Appliance. Evelyn Jimenez was on the lookout for a location to rent in the Nutmeg State in order to expand her Philadelphia-based home appliance business.By chance, she ended up in Fair Haven — and decided to put down retail roots.Jimenez described that commercial journey to Grand Avenue Tuesday afternoon during a ribbon cutting for her recently opened business, J&M Home Appliance. That’s Jimenez’s bright, shiny emporium full of stoves, refrigerators, and washer/dryers at 302 Grand Ave., near Blatchley.She said that her search for a Connecticut location for her business took place early this summer. Her only relatives in the state are in New London. First she explored in West Haven, then Hamden. Then Jimenez, who did not know Fair Haven, and was not particularly looking for a Latino neighborhood, came to an intersection where a right turn would take her into that district’s main commercial corridor, and a left somewhere else.Her car and her heart, she said, opted for the right turn.The result is the opening of what city economic development officials say is only the third individually owned, non-big-box appliance store in New Haven. “I felt a connection, something called me [to Fair Haven],” Jimenez said on Tuesday as a full crew of city economic development staffers, alders, neighbors, and local business advocates joined her, Mayor Justin Elicker, and a giant pair of blue scissors for the ceremonial ribbon-cutting.When she told the real estate agent the nature of her business, Jimenez recalled, ​“the agent said, ‘[302 Grand is] too small.’ But that’s the one I want,” Jimenez replied.And business has been very good, she reported, since the actual opening of doors in late June.“I try not only to sell, but to help people,” she said. Appliances are no longer inexpensive, and because of that her store also offers repair services for customers’ existing appliances if someone can’t afford something new.She’s also partnering with a credit provider. ​“I try to make the customer feel like family,” she said, and that’s the basis of her plans to grow the business.Mayor Elicker and Jimenez. Deputy Economic Administrator Carlos Eyzaguirre made emotional remarks emphasizing the importance of women-run and women-owned businesses in the city. And Fair Haven boasts many of them. Grand Avenue Special Services District director Erick Gonzalez said that of Fair Haven’s approximately 130 business establishments from the Quinnipiac River to the Mill River, about 55 are owned and/or run by women.And Christine Schlike, whose Connecticut Main Street Center is advising the city on its overall business development strategy, said that a business like Jimenez’s, which helps people with their daily needs and necessities, is a real force for community-building.It helps ​“to make their house a home,” she said, so that people don’t have to buy online ​“but through a personal relationship,” so that Jimenez’s service, along with her personal style, adds to what Schlike termed ​“the diverse tapestry” of Fair Haven.Mayor Elicker said Jimenez had chosen a propitious time to open her business. Jimenez had noted, when she spotted the vacant store, that a church and school were very close by.She did not know, as Elicker detailed, that Fair Haven Community Health Care’s major new complex is rising down the street or that $7.5 million of city, state, and federal funds are being invested along Grand Avenue in the months ahead in a project called ​“Grand-er Grand Avenue.”The projects include a completely repaved Grand Avenue from the Quinnipiac River to State Street, major sidewalk upgrades, pedestrian safety enhancements, some kind of plaza or esplanade in the area where the municipal parking lot sits near Poplar Street, improved lighting, signage that will help brand Fair Haven, and ongoing support for clean-up crews and graffiti removal.Jimenez seemed to take all this in with grace and stride. After all, she hails from a business family that includes a sister who’s an accountant and another who runs a supermarket in the Dominican Republic.Jimenez herself emigrated five years ago. She originally operated an appliance store with her husband in Union, New Jersey, and now she also manages an appliance store and warehouse in Philadelphia.It’s true J&M Home Appliance is a place of modest size, but the business, along with Evelyn Jimenez’s ambition, hardly feels mom-and-pop. She sells all brands and if a customer doesn’t see what she wants, Jimenez will truck it in from the Philadelphia warehouse, no additional charge, to 302 Grand Ave.Mayor and Jimenez with Grand Avenue Special Services District Manager Erick Gonzalez (center).