Queen Bee Plaza - Southington, Connecticut

[ynkeesfn82]

The Queen Bee Plaza is a small shopping plaza at 328-360 Queen Street in Southington, CT.

Tenants are:
People's Choice Pizza - A Take-out and delivery chain with locations throughout Connecticut and one location in  Georgia.
Connecticut Mattress
Ocean State Job Lot
Glidden Paint Store
Cardio Express Gym

Separate Building:
Goodwill Stores

Separate Building:
Wendy's

Separate Building - 360 Queen Street

Jenny K's Cleaners
Pizza Hut Delivery & Take-Out
Tommy's Tanning
LUX Nail & Spa

History:
Wendy's was once Roy Rogers, Ocean State Job Lot was once Marshall's, The Goodwill Store used to be Eblen's, there used to be a NAMCO store where Cardio Express is. There was also a Channel Home Center somewhere in the plaza too. A notorious bar called Vibrations (and later Wednesday's) was also located in the plaza. The separate building at 360 Queen Street used to be a Hollywood Video and was built on the site of a former gas station. Connecticut Mattress used to be Better Bedding which was owned by the owner of CT Mattress. Sleepy's bought Better Bedding and occupied the space (the 2nd location in Southington). CT Mattress opened last year.

After being rundown for as long as my family has lived in Southington (we have lived here since 2003), the plaza has been undergoing extreme exterior renovations for the past few months. Hopefully they'll also pave the parking lot when they're done with the exterior renovations. The parking lot is horrible.

Editor's Note: Perhaps they're finally fixing up the plaza because they're going to sell it. The plaza was on the market a few years ago with no takers.

[TheFugitive]

Pizza Hut and People's Choice Pizza in the same plaza, eh?

Sounds like the Hillcrest Shopping Center in Bethel Park, PA.
There was a local pizza take out joint there called Thank God It's Pizza!
There was also a traditional sit-down Pizza Hut location with the red roof up the road
in the Walmart plaza.

About two years ago the Pizza Hut closed and converted to a take out location in this
plaza.  I'm sure the owners of Thank God It's Pizza! were absolutely thrilled about that!
They were out of business within a matter of months.

Same thing happened to my cousin who was working in a hair salon located in a small
plaza when the space next-door was leased to Fantastic Sam's.   They had to go looking for
a new location. 

I always thought the leases on these places restricted the landlord from bringing a direct
competitor into your plaza?   Apparently not.

[ynkeesfn82]

I always thought the leases on these places restricted the landlord from bringing a direct
competitor into your plaza?   Apparently not.

Usually that is the case, but maybe it's up to the tenant and not the landlord. Or maybe it's because it's a separate building. That's why the the Shaw's Supermarket that was at 750 Queen Street in Southington from 1996-2006 and the Shoprite Supermarket that has occupied the building since 2010 CANNOT have a pharmacy because there is a CVS right next door.

Over in Bristol, Connecticut the Stop & Shop Supermarket on Farmington Avenue won't let the Dollar Tree have a Frozen Food/Refrigerated Foods Section.

But in the same plaza as Stop & Shop is a small Chinese Take-Out place called Wang's King Garden. Then in 2000 or 2001 Century Buffet (A Chinese-American Buffet) opened in the same plaza, but separate building.

[giantsfan2016]

Pizza Hut closed and was replaced by a UPS store that relocated from inside the nearby Price Chopper.

People's Choice closed and was replaced by Renaldo's Apizza in September 2017 after their location on North Main Street burned down in early 2016.

[giantsfan2016]

2019 Update. Planet Fitness bought out Cardio Express. Renaldo's is buying out Eddie's Sombraro a Mexican Restaurant in the Oak Hill Mall on Queen Street. Renaldo's will relocate there, but they will still serve some of the Mexican cuisine.