The thwack of a hammer reverberated through Vineyard Haven Wednesday morning. Several blocks away, the whirl of a saw carried downwind.

January may be the height of the quiet season on Martha’s Vineyard, when Main street parking spaces open up and so many storefronts remain bolted, but the streets of Vineyard Haven hardly have been sleepy of late. Instead, business owners and workers have spent the winter months brokering leases, renovating facades and hatching plans that could breathe new life into the long-ailing downtown.

“People keep asking me what’s going to happen,” says Vineyard Haven Stop & Shop manager Sam Koohy, whose involvement in plans to expand the grocery have put him at the center of much commotion and speculation.

In May the Stop & Shop Supermarket Corporation purchased an adjacent Water street building, home of the Golden Dragon Chinese restaurant and a sweatshirt clothing store, for $950,000. Since then, talk of the expansion has been on many shoppers’ lips, he said.

Mr. Koohy said plans to expand the 9,000-square-foot Stop & Shop remain in the early stages, but will involve taking over that adjacent building, as well as the space Stop & Shop currently rents to the Midnight Farm boutique.

“We have a lot of legwork to do now, because we have to go before the health department, the selectmen, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission and so forth,” he said. He expects specific plans for the expansion to begin to coalesce in March.

“My customers know that we purchased the building and are all very excited and happy to know that there will be a new building put into place,” he said.

In the meantime, telltale signs of further change in Vineyard Haven are cropping up all around.

At the corner of Main street, a sign affixed to the window of the old Advest Inc. building announces the impending arrival of La Choza, a take-out burrito restaurant scheduled to open in February. Islander Seth Gambino said he has modeled the business on a chain of similar restaurants he operated in the Berkshires, and will serve large, affordable burritos for lunch and dinner year-round.

Steps away, another restaurant is taking shape, this one in the former home of Che’s Lounge, which has been vacant since 2010.

Ben Hall Jr., whose family owns the property, said he has signed a lease with Josh and Angela Aronie, the husband and wife duo who most recently operated Menemsha Cafe. Forced to close the popular spot in December due to what Mr. Aronie described as unfeasible lease terms, they’re now planning to open MV Winery, a small restaurant with outdoor dining space, in the alleway space of Main street this spring.

The Sweet E’s cupcake shop, thought to be closing at the end of last season, is also on the move — though it won’t be going far. Owner Ezra Sherman announced at the end of last season that he would be closing the business, but now says he will be moving into a larger space next door.

Farther down the street still Jean Dupon is planning to open a new French cafe next to his long-term restaurant, Le Grenier. Mr. Dupon said he had bad luck renting the adjacent space — one tenant went bankrupt, another had to be taken to court for eviction — and has now decided to reclaim the space for himself. He believes the new cafe, in the spot where he once ran a pâtisserie, will complement the main restaurant. The cafe will be called La Cave du Grenier and serve breakfast, lunch and light dinners, he said.

Workers were stationed outside the restaurant this week splicing plywood and installing plumbing in preparation for an April opening. “I’m redoing the whole interior from A to Z,” said Mr. Dupon.

On Beach street the banging of hammers and removal of vinyl siding signals yet more change: the renovation of the Chamber of Commerce building.

Chamber executive director Nancy Gardella said she hopes the renovation, scheduled to be completed in May, will make local businesses proud to call the visitors’ center their own.

“The overall concept is to create an aesthetic that has the appearance of being more historic, more maritime, more what we think visitors are looking for when they think about a year-round visitors center,” Ms. Gardella said this week.

“The last couple of years have not been without its challenges for us, but we have tightened our belts and we kept or costs as low as we could reasonably,” she said.

The Chamber recently paid down its mortgage and is now using available funds to refurbish the building.

“People have suffered through really tough economic times,” said Ms. Gardella. “A bit of a shakeup, a bit of a face-lift, at the chamber and elsewhere — I think people are ready,” she said.

Still, others have urged caution in assigning too much importance to recent movements in town.

“It’s great that there are things happening, but one tenant goes out and one tenant goes in,” said Mr. Hall. “When one tenant goes out and there’s a For Rent sign for a long time in the window that’s an issue.” That’s still the case for many storefronts in Vineyard Haven.

Mr. Hall said he’s been seeking a tenant for the former Bowl & Board building, which his family also owns, since the previous tenants vacated in 2010.

“I want this place to have been rented two years ago. We’ve been in negotiations with six different parties in that time and nothing has come to fruition,” he said. He’s currently in negotiations with a new prospective tenant, which he hopes will yield positive results.

Meanwhile Renee Molinari, co-owner of Beetlebung Coffee House says she’s uncertain of that coffee shop’s future in Vineyard Haven.

The Beetlebung company recently announced plans to bring a new coffee shop to the vacated Menemsha Cafe space in Chilmark. But whether the original coffee house will re-open on Beach street this spring is an “open question,” said Mrs. Molinari. The coffee shop is currently closed for the season and its lease is coming to an end.

“We have a lot of paths that we’re exploring right now, and in a couple months we hope to know where we’re going, besides Menemsha,” she said.

“Everything is kind of in flux here, and I think a lot of people don’t know yet where the chips are going to fall. We’ll throw it all up in the air and see where it lands.”