Daily Archive for August 29th, 2007

The future of Eagle Square

Published on August 29, 2007 in Providence and Urban Issues. 2 Comments

I don’t really have a whole lot to report on the meeting.  It was actually what I worried it would become, more of a bitch-fest against “gentrification”, though that term was not used.  Here’s my notes and thoughts on the whole thing.

The city council was represented, as was Feldco (the developer that owns Eagle Square), the city (through the director of planning), and Shaws (though Supervalue, the company that owns Shaws, was not).  The councilwoman who represents that ward was very much upset with Shaws for pulling out of this and would like to work with the community, the developer, and Supervalue (who has full control over the lease of the property) to get something there that the people want.

Thus, the discussion tended to stay towards what we want to see there.  Different options were tossed around.  The councilwoman mentioned Trader Joe’s (which is a hot topic around here, but would be ideal).  Other thoughts were a flea market, though one does exist only about a block away, an indoor mini-amusement park (like something in, I think, Seekonk), though I don’t see that going over so well, an indoor open market similar to Reading Terminal in Philadelphia or some market in Boston (Hay Market or Quincy Market).  I am not sure about any of those because for it to succeed, it would have to draw people at least 6 days a week.  Most flea markets are only open on the weekends and a lot of these open markets in other cities only have limited hours, such as weekends only.  If whatever goes in this space is not open at least 6 days a week, the other stores in the complex will suffer.

Because Supervalue has full control, I have no doubt in my mind that whatever goes there will be something that benefits them as they will likely be taking a loss on the rent.  I do hope it will be something worthwhile.  I would like to see some sort of market, whether or not it’s a supermarket, I am still somewhat undecided.  I would like to be able to get my groceries closer to home, but if I can get fresher produce, baked goods, deli meats, and cheeses, that would be great too.

Eagle Square grocery store meeting

Published on August 29, 2007 in Providence and Urban Issues. Closed

I’ll be at a meeting/session/thingy about the future of Eagle Square in Providence. I won’t go into too much of the history of it (in part because I am not very knowledgeable on that), but it used to be a series of old mill buildings in the Valley neighborhood on Atwells Ave. between Eagle St. and Valley St. Many of the buildings were torn down before the residents got the city to step in and the developer used the original buildings for the rest of the project, but a large parking lot, strip mall, and a big box space replaced the buildings that were demolished. It’s that big box space that this meeting is about.

The space was a Shaws supermarket, a decent one (at least by my standards). It had wide aisles, decent produce, and lots of ethnic foods (and it was rarely out of the items that I would be looking for, unlike the Shaws in North Providence). Earlier this summer, Shaws announced the closing of 2 under-performing stores in Providence – this one and the one on North Main St. I have never been to this store and seen it jam packed, but I always attributed that to the size and spaciousness of the store, as well as always having more than enough registers open (which many grocery stores don’t do). I have also never seen the store completely dead, unless I went later at night. Unfortunately, what’s done is done and the store officially closes at the end of this week. Unofficially, the store started closing 2 months ago when they started actually removing stock from the shelves rather than let it get bought out and simply not re-stock. I have been in the store twice since they started removing stock. The first time I realized I need not go back, the second time was to see if I could get any good deals (but they didn’t have any closeouts unfortunately).

This meeting tonight is about the future of that space and what the residents of the area would like to see there. Serving the surrounding neighborhood is a Price Rite in Olneyville Square. They might be cheaper, but they don’t have all the same stuff a regular supermarket has. One option that was mentioned was to split this space and put in a low price store (like Price Rite, Sav-A-Lot, Price Chopper, etc) and try to get a Trader Joe’s in the other spot (the store of Trader Joe’s moving to Providence is a long one and apparently they don’t want to be here without parking, which this space has plenty of). That would have the benefit of the good produce and items that Trader Joe’s has (at really good prices, much better than Whole Foods and many times even Shaws) and the low cost of the other store for the regular grocery items. I’ll report about the meeting later tonight after it takes place.

If you want to go (and if you live in the neighborhood or the city, I think you should try to go):

When: Tonight, August 29 at 7:00 pm

Where: Providence Public Safety Complex Auditorium (1st Floor), 325 Washington St.

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