Roche Bros. grocery proposed for 240 Elm Street; Meeting September 10

[ron_newman]

According to a Facebook post from Alderman-at-Large Jack Connolly, Roche Bros. proposes to open a grocery store in the former Social Security Building, 240 Elm Street. They will hold an on-site meeting to discuss this on Wednesday, September 10 at 6 pm.

Roche Bros. is a local family-owned supermarket chain whose current locations are mostly in the beyond-128 suburbs. They are now building their first urban store in the former Filene's Basement space in Downtown Crossing.

I really hope this happens. I think it suits Davis Square's needs better than the previous World of Beer and Beer Works proposals.

ETA: Based on the illustration that Jack provided, what they actually seem to be proposing is a new sub-brand of smaller Roche stores called "Brothers Marketplace", whose first location opened in Weston a few months ago. Their Facebook page is more informative than their rather skeletal website.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I don't expect it to have or need any parking in this location (nor, for that matter, at Filene's downtown).

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

I was just having this sort of conversation over lunch, with the consensus at the time being that it's silly to plan parking for new development in heavily urbanized environments (like Davis) where we're actively trying to decrease reliance upon POVs.

JP has a bigger problem in that regard than we do, I think, but IANAUP (I am not an urban planner)