New Lease On Life For Vacant Ames Plaza
The vacant Ames building on Route 131 in Sturbridge could soon be occupied by two well-known retailers.
Ocean State Job Lot and Tractor Supply Co. have plans to move to the location in the Sturbridge Plaza, which is also home to a Shaw’s Supermarket and a JC Penney, according to Matthew Smith, an engineer with Bohler Engineering of Southborough, a civil engineering firm.
Bohler is working for the plaza’s owner, Edens & Avant, a privately held shopping center owner and manager with an office in Boston. The plaza is located at 178-196 Main St. and totals 158,000 square feet.
Edens & Avant owns 19 shopping centers in Massachusetts.
Seven are in Central Massachusetts, including two in Acton and one each in Ashland, Grafton, Hudson, Shrewsbury and Sturbridge.
The Ames property is a priority development site for the town that allows developers to take advantage of streamlined permitting.
The town has scheduled a public hearing on the development for Sept. 7.
Retail Rebirth
Edens & Avant has already signed a lease with Tractor Supply, according to Worcester County land records.
Edens & Avant has owned the property under the name Sea Sturbridge Plaza LLC since 2002, when it bought it from Connecticut-based Konover Management Corp. for $7.5 million.
Smith said the Ames space was vacant when the company bought the property, and had been for some time previously.
Ames, a Rocky Hill, Conn.-based chain, went out of business in 2002. At its peak, the chain had 700 stores in 20 states.
The two new stores would take up slightly more than 50,000 square feet, with Ocean State Job Lot taking up 30,400 square feet and Tractor Supply taking 20,000, Smith said.
Ocean State Job Lot is a discount retailer selling a variety of good. It has nearly 100 stores, including one in neighboring Southbridge.
Tractor Supply is a farm and outdoor supplies retailer with 967 stores across the country. It was founded in 1938 in Chicago.
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