A Westport-based gelato company plans to move its manufacturing business from Sargent Drive to Grand Avenue, after purchasing a former commercial-bakery building from Lyman Orchards for $1.05 million. That property sale was recorded on the city’s land records database on Friday. The rel evant warranty deed states that Gelato Haven LLC paid $1.05 million to Middlefield Real Estate Holdings LLC to acquire the industrial property at 724 Grand Ave. That two-story commercial bakery was last appraised by the city for tax purposes as worth $1,116,328. The Grand Avenue property has been owned since December 2021 by an affiliate of the Middlefield-based apple orchard company Lyman Orchards, which bought 724 Grand and two Food Terminal Plaza properties for $3 million in order to move part of its pie-making business to New Haven. The 724 Grand Ave. building was previously owned by the local bakery company Something Sweet. The new owner of 724 Grand Ave. is a company controlled by Eric and Kelly Emmert. According to the Westport blog 06880, the Emmerts announced earlier this month that they will be closing their business Cold Fusion Gelato in August in order to “focus on the manufacturing side” of their business. Eric Emmert told the Independent in a phone interview Monday that he and his wife took over the Long Wharf-based company Gelato Giuliana roughly two years ago. He said they indeed plan on moving their gelato-making business from Sargent Drive to Grand Avenue. Emmert said that his and his wife’s company should move into 724 Grand by the end of this year. Within around two years, they expect to have 25 to 30 people working out of the Grand Avenue hub. That’s up from 11 who currently work on Sargent Drive. (Emmert said that their company will be relocating their current Massachusetts-based gelato-making operations to 724 Grand Ave., as well.) “There was some built-in freezer capacity there already,” Emmert said when asked why he and his wife decided to buy and relocate their business to 724 Grand Ave. “It was a good location” with a “good workforce in New Haven” and a “good opportunity to grow business and add jobs.” He said that their gelato company will now focus on wholesaling gelato and sorbet out of their new location. In a separate phone interview Monday, Frank D’Ostilio from the real estate company Houlihan Lawrence also told the Independent that the Emmerts’ gelato company plans to relocate from Sargent Drive to Grand Avenue. Why did Lyman Orchards decide to sell this property? “It was just surplus capacity,” D’Ostilio said. “They didn’t need it any longer.” He said that Lyman has, however, held onto its Long Wharf space, where it is continuing to make some of its pies. A representative from Lyman Orchards did not respond to requests for comment by the publication time of this article. “There was a tremendous amount of interest in the property,” D’Ostilio said about 724 Grand. “We had a couple of offers. It was on the market for about six months. … There is demand for industrial property The city’s land records database also shows that, on Thursday, June 11, Gelato Haven LLC, Frozen Cookery LLC, and Giuliana Cookery LLC received a $1,905,800 mortgage loan from TD Bank for the 724 Grand Ave. property. Still another land records filing from Friday states that the property’s new landlord, Gelato Haven LLC, has signed a lease with tenants Frozen Cookery LLC and Giuliana Cookery LLC for 724 Grand Ave. State business records show that 724 Grand Ave.’s two new tenants, Frozen Cookery LLC and Giuliana Cookery LLC, are both currently based out of 240 Sargent Dr. (Frozen Cookery is controlled by both Eric and Kelly Emmert, while Giuliana Cookery is controlled just by Kelly Emmert.) Kelly Emmert’s LinkedIn page, meanwhile, states that she has been the CEO of the Sargent Drive-based company Gelato Giuliana since January 2025. Click here to read a 2011 article in the Independent about Gelato Giuliana. On the parking lot side of the Grand Avenue building. The post Gelato Makers Buy Grand Industrial Building appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less