New life is coming to 88 Bradley Road, the taupe stucco building on the corner of Bradley Road and Lunar Drive. The building was purchased by 88 Bradley Road LLC in 2018 and now has two tenants and is in the midst of renovations and attracting more tenants.
Cynthia Liu’s business, Orange Cheese, was the first business in the newly sold building. Liu exports American cheese to China. Historically, dairy has not been widely consumed in China however that is changing. Liu grew up in China and had never eaten cheese until she was pregnant with her first child and living in the U.S. She began eating it as a healthy source of protein and quickly fell in love with cheese.
“My parents are in their 70s and they had never eaten cheese, but they started eating it when they visited,” she explained. When her parents asked her to send cheese to them in China she realized there was a market for cheese in China.
Now her business is the exclusive representative in China for leading American cheese companies. She exports cheese to Mainland China, Macau, Taiwan and Hong Kong and she has offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong. She plans to expand to Japan, Korea and other countries in Southeast Asia next.
The building has a newly fixed roof and will soon have new windows, and a redesigned entrance to be more open, welcoming and ADA compliant. Many offices have views of West Rock Ridge State Park. The ownership of the building is looking to fill the space with tenants from start-up companies to professional services, both small and medium sized businesses – there are seven units in the building with flexible space and lease terms from 500 to 4,000 square feet.
The other tenant in the building, Sammi Sleeping Systems LLC, is managed by co-founder Carlton Chen, a practicing business lawyer and entrepreneur. Sammi has developed, markets and sells therapeutic pillows that are FDA Class 3 medical devices for the snoring indication. Besides reducing or eliminating snoring, they are designed to promote deep sleep and relax the neck muscles while sleeping.
Their premium pillows are made of 100% plant materials and contain internal walls and compartments that hold U.S.-grown organic buckwheat hulls to give support to the cervical neck. "Buckwheat hull-filled pillows have been used in Asia for a thousand years," Chen said.
"They keep the head cool. Equally important, our pillow is adjustable in height and comfort via multiple openings and can be tailored to each person's anatomy. Those are the key differences between ours and others that are just sacks filled with heat-retaining material and lack the proper support," he said.
Sammi pillows are sold on Wayfair as Sampson and Lafayette Deep Sleep Pillows as well as on its Website at www.sammipillows.com and on Amazon.
Sammi was previously located in New Haven’s Science Park and, when the lease was up, moved to Woodbridge due to its convenient location.