By Mike Rego
The choices for grocery shoppers in the eastern and southern parts of the city, especially, and the upper East Bay area for that matter will be a bit closer and certainly even greater than they care currently after two announcements of planned expansion by regional and national supermarket chains.
Both Market Basket, the privately-owned Massachusetts-based company, and Whole Foods, now part of the Amazon international retail behemoth, have recently made known their plans to purchase and potentially convert properties in next-door Seekonk into their newest local outlets.
Market Basket, owned by Demoulas Super Markets Inc. in Tewksbury, in mid-July recently paid $9.5 million to NAI Entertainment Holdings for the Showcase Cinemas parcel, the one located next to the Target Store in the Seekonk Square Shopping Plaza at 101 Commerce Way.
When reached for comment by various media outlets, Demoulas did not immediately make known its intentions, nor was any official opening date was announced. However, it appears likely the site would become the spot for its latest venture, which is renowned for its reasonably priced, name-brand products.
The closest Market Basket to East Providence is in South Attleboro just over the Rhode Island/Massachusetts border on Newport Avenue in the RK Bristol Place Shopping Plaza. That store opened in 2015.
As for Whole Foods, it announced in the spring of this year that it had purchased the property located at 940 Fall River Ave., which currently houses a Clarion Inn hotel and the Dublin Rose restaurant/bar.
According to town officials when details of the sale emerged in April, the expectation is for both buildings to be razed. In its place, Whole Foods, known for its higher-end, organic products, will construct a 40,000 square foot store.
The Seekonk supermarket would join the heavily-trafficked Whole Foods located located on Waterman Street just over the Henderson Bridge on the East Side of Providence. The Whole Foods is part of a complete re-envisioning of the Fall River Avenue parcel.
When completed, the expectation being the spring of 2026, the Seekonk site will also include a new, four-story hotel, a roughly 7,000 sf "small shop" space adjacent to the supermarket as well as a separate 3,000 sf space with drive-thru capabilities.
Of the latter two pieces, developers told the Seekonk Zoning Board the potential for the other structures are a restaurant or a bank among other commercial ventures.
The two new supermarkets join the well-established options already available to customers in East Providence and vicinity.
Shaw's has three locations, two in East Providence (Taunton and Willett Avenues) and one in Barrington. Stop & Shop, after it recently announced it was closing the store it operates under the East Side Market monicker also on the East Side of Providence, maintains its considerable presence with a store in East Providence (Pawtucket Avenue) and two in Seekonk (Highland and Newman Avenues).
In addition, shoppers have the more modestly-priced options of Aldi in EP on Newport Avenue, Price Rite in Seekonk on Taunton Avenue and Save A Lot on Pawtucket Avenue also in EP. The announcements begged the question of how a couple of redevelopment efforts planned in city will be impacted.
As part of its endeavor to reimagine the former Metacomet Country Club land off Veterans Memorial Parkway, Marshall Properties has stated its intention to lure a supermarket as one of its anchor tenants for the retail/commercial element of its project.
In response to an inquiry, Lianne Marshall, co-owner of Marshall Properties, said, “Our initial plans to include a supermarket remain unchanged, although the lengthy approval process has introduced an unhelpful element of uncertainty. That said, activity in Seekonk has no effect on our plans, as the locations are considered by industry experts to be two distinct market areas.”
Also, the long-stalled project led by the Carpionato Group to retrofit the moribund Narragansett Park Plaza on Newport Avenue into a mixed-use, commercial/residential compound similar to that at Metacomet was potentially to include a supermarket in the same building in which the former Stop & Shop store was once situated.
Somewhat ironically, although Stop & Shop no longer wanted to occupy the 58,000 square foot building, it had a seemingly lock-tight agreement to prohibit another grocer being allowed to operate in the space.
The 50-year lease originate when the plaza opened in 1986. Stop & Shop’s rights don't end until 2036. Carpionato hasn't broached the city in the public domain since before the pandemic.
The developer did appear before the Pawtucket Planning Commission in July of 2023 for consideration of its master plan the project. As a reminder 10.5 acres of the 24.9-acre property is located in Pawtucket. According to a story written by
The Valley Breeze at the time last year, the gist of the plan Carpionato submitted in Pawtucket called for two four-story buildings to be built on the East Providence side of the line with commercial and residential units and two proposed restaurant/retail/office buildings that would be half in Pawtucket and half in East Providence.
