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

RE: Rather than competition, complementary.

[teko.livejournal.com]

I was at the Beer Works meetings and came away very split. On the one hand, what Beer Works was proposing would be a huge, much-needed aesthetic upgrade to that building and would raise the bar of how Davis Square could look. It was classy, respectful, and had good ideas behind it. And given that the other option at the time was a crappy-looking 'mini mall' of a smoke shop, massage place, and Burger King, I was all for it. On the other hand, well... it's a Beer Works.

I disagree with the way Alderman Gewirtz personally handled the situation, but if it has a positive outcome, at least we avoided the worst case scenario.