Shoprite Plaza Southington, CT

[ynkeesfn82]

Editor's Note: I had to create a new topic for the Shoprite Plaza in Souhtington, Connecticut as I deleted the original topic about it while I was doing some housekeeping Wednesday Night.

Shoprite Plaza in Southington, CT is located at 716-800 Queen Street (Route 10). It is owned by Cornerstone Properties of Farmington and has been since 1987. As of August 22nd, 2014 there is one 3,000 square foot vacancy in the plaza. Here is the site plan for the plaza from Cornerstone's website. http://cpi-ct.com/admin/uploads/2433852d588552980f.pdf Note: It still show's Casual Curtain open. It also shows vacant space in back of Buffalo Wild Wings, but there is nothing back there.

Current List of tenants. (From Left to Right)
Buffalo Wild Wings
Fro-Yo World
Moe's Southwest Grill
Vacant
CVS
Shoprite Supermarket
Moon Nail Salon
Cost Cutters Hair Salon
Luen Hop Chinese Take-out
GNC
Town Fair Tire
Petco
Party City
H&R Block
Joann's
And in a building by itself Burger King.

History

This was the first shopping center built on Queen Street in Southington. It started with just one store in 1961 - a local independent department store called G.E. Madison's. A year later an addition was built onto Madison's and W.T. Grants opened (moving from a smaller location downtown on Center Street and Waldbaum's Foodmart opened. The plaza was known as The Southington Parkade. There were other small stores and restaurants in the plaza, but I'm not sure what they were.

W.T. Grants closed in '76 when the chain went bankrupt. Foodmart moved down to Caldor Village Plaza in 1981, replacing and IGA store. GE Madion's closed in 1981. First National stores opened a Edward's Food Warehouse in the old Madison's in 1982. Edward's replaced a small First National store on Main Street downtown where Family Dollar is located today. A Chuck E Cheese closed down in 1984. I don't even know what year they opened.

In 1987 after Cornerstone bought the plaza an addition was built to the left of Edward's. ToyWorks, Strawberries, Casual Curtain, and CVS eventually occupied the space in the addition.

In 1995 Edward's was bought out by Stop & Shop. Several stores including Southington were sold to Shaw's, which opened in November 1995.

In 2003 my family had relocated to Southington from Bristol. KB Toys closed. I believe this was the first round of store closings for them. Busineses in the plaza were:

Vacant (Former KB)
Strawberries
Casual Curtain
CVS
Shaw's
Vacant (Former Bank)
Cost Cutters Salon
Luen Hop Chinese Take-Out
GNC
Petco
I-Party
H&R Block
Bernie's
And Burger King in a building by itself.

In 2005 or 2006 Moon Nail Salon opened in the former bank branch next to Shaw's. Shaw's closed on October 28th, 2006 a week before their 10th anniversary. Citi Bank took 5,000 Square Foot of the former KB Toys. Strawberries closed, but I don't remember if that was 2006 or 2007.

At the beginning of 2010 the plaza received another death blow when Bernie's announced they were filing for bankruptcy and closing all their locations. That bit of bad news was overshadowed by a major announcement in February 2010 when The Drust Family owners of Shoprite of Meriden were planning to open a Shoprite in the former Shaw's store. This would mark Shoprite's return to Southington after an 18 year absence. (Shoprite Stores Inc. closed a small 30,000 Square Foot Store on the opposite side of Queen Street in Ames Plaza in 1992).

After spending between 6 and 8 million dollars to overhaul the old Shaw's space Shoprite opened on November 17th, 2010. Moe's Southwest Grill would open in the former Strawberries in February 2011. And although no more businesses would open in the until July 2013, the number of businesses looking at the vacant spaces increased by a lot since the opening of Shoprite. Planet Fitness and Panera looked at space. Panera even got the approval to open in the former Citi Bank portion of the old KB Toys, but they ultimately backed out because they couldn't get a drive-thru. Buffalo Wild Wings got the approval open in a portion of the old Bernie's, but they later decided to take over part of the old KB Toys and they opened in July 2013. Fro-Yo World took another part of the former KB Toy and opened in the late summer 2013. I-Party and Party City merged. Jo-Ann's opened in the old Bernie's on February 2014, one day after Casual Curtain closed down. As for Panera? They opened in early 2014 in a newly constructed plaza called Cosmo's Corner on the corner of Route 10 and Laning Street.

[ynkeesfn82]

Simply Wireless is taking the last vacant spot in this plaza which was occupied by Causal Curtain until February 1st. Simply Wireless is relocating here from space in the Patten Brook Plaza. This will be the 2nd time they have relocated.

[ynkeesfn82]

One would assume that they are going to be redoing the facade of half the Shoprite Plaza in Southington. The half to the Right of Shoprite. Over the past few days they've been taking down the signs of all the businesses and replacing them with temporary banners.

There is one vacancy in the plaza a 2712 Square Foot Sport in-between Buffalo Wild Wings and Moe's that was Fro-Yo World.

[JimSawhill]

One would assume that they are going to be redoing the facade of half the Shoprite Plaza in Southington. The half to the Right of Shoprite. Over the past few days they've been taking down the signs of all the businesses and replacing them with temporary banners.

There is one vacancy in the plaza a 2712 Square Foot Sport in-between Buffalo Wild Wings and Moe's that was Fro-Yo World.

looking at the history of the plaza, i forgot Madison's...another lost store

[ynkeesfn82]

One would assume that they are going to be redoing the facade of half the Shoprite Plaza in Southington. The half to the Right of Shoprite. Over the past few days they've been taking down the signs of all the businesses and replacing them with temporary banners.

That's exactly what they're doing and it's a huge mess. Furthermore they're not redoing the facade of H&R Block or Joann's. The're also replacing the roof. They've got a large area of the parking lot blocked off too. Yeah really good on Sundays when Shoprite is super crowded and they got customer parking all the way to that end of the plaza.

[ynkeesfn82]

Facade work continues. My camera does not work so I can't grab any pictures.

[ynkeesfn82]

They're almost done with the new facade and roof on the section of the plaza to the right of Shoprite. The new facade goes from Moon Nails down to Party City. They also rebuilt the collumns holding up the building. I hope they're going to redo the part where H&R Block and Joann's is or it's going to looks stupid. They also should redo the other side of the plaza from CVS down or else it's going to look stupid. Part of the facade on that end was redone when Moe's went in in 2011 and Buffalo Wild Wings in 2013.

[giantsfan2016]

In July 2016 they began redoing the facade on the part of the plaza that includes H&R Block and Joann's. Meanwhile Fro-Yo world remains vacant.

[giantsfan2016]

They're almost done. Photos coming soon.

[giantsfan2016]

Photo 1 shows Joann's with the new facade. Joann's opened in Ferbuary 2014. Facade work done July-September 2016.

Photo 2 shows H&R Block sans sign with the new facade. Facade work done July-September 2016.

Photo 3 shows Petco with the new facade. Their facade work was completed by October 2015.

Photo 4 shows Town Fair Tire with the new facade. Completed by October 2015.

Photo 5 shows Moon Nails, Cost Cutters, Luen Hop Chinese, and GNC with the new facade. Completed by October 2015.

Missing is a photo of Party City.

Photo 6 shows the completely gutted down to 4 walls of the old Fro-Yo World. They closed in late 2014 after only opening in 2013. This along with Buffalo Wild Wings was originally Toy Works which became KB Toys which closed in 03.

[giantsfan2016]

They're in the process of building a dentist office in the old Fro-Yo World Spot in-between Buffalo Wild Wings and Moe's. This plaza is now 100% occupied again. Dentist offices (like Walk-in Urgent Care Centers) seem to be popping up everywhere the last few years. Of the major shopping centers on Queen Street in Southington this is the only one with no vacancies.

[JJBers]

Don't have a photo of the plaza it's self, but here's a photo of the water tower behind it:

[giantsfan2016]

Don't have a photo of the plaza it's self, but here's a photo of the water tower behind it:

Yeah. That belonged to Pratt & Whitney Aircraft which was located on Aircraft Road. They closed both plants in 93 or 95. The other is on Newell Street and is now Yarde Metals. The new owners of The P&W building in Aircraft Road told the town last year they would knock down that eyesore, but it's still there.

[Brammy]

Party City is closing in February 2020. That will leave an 8,350 square foot vacancy in the plaza.