WOONSOCKET – The timeline for a new grocery store to come to the Diamond Hill Road area is still likely a few months long, said Mayor Chris Beauchamp this week.
The owners of the proposed Daily Stop Super Market have been paying a lease for the past year, and they said last April that they expected to be open by fall.
Beauchamp, who said last fall that he expected the opening by spring, told The Local Insider this week that he’s communicated with the owners, who have permits in hand and have gutted the former Sears space in the Walnut Hill Plaza, and they have said they expect to be open by the middle of the summer.
Realistically, Beauchamp said, that’s probably pretty optimistic, and the more likely scenario is an opening at the end of summer or early fall.
Two visits by The Insider to the property over the past few days have revealed no one working inside at the time. That’s an experience echoed by Beauchamp. He said perhaps there is something more happening than meets the eye, and the building has been prepared for construction.
Local officials and residents have set their hopes on Daily Stop helping to revive an area that’s struggled to retain major retailers in recent years.
The footprint of the grocery store is expected to be about 40,000 square feet, 10,000 more square feet than the existing vacant store.
Daily Stop, which is also announcing another new store coming to Brockton, Mass., markets itself as delivering “all your daily needs, under one roof.”
