Dave's Marketplace to open Cranston location

Spring 2017 opening eyed at former Seabra on Pontiac Avenue

By Daniel Kittredge
Posted 9/28/16

It's official - Dave's Marketplace will open a new location in Cranston. The company formally announced the long-rumored plans this week. The new store at 550 Pontiac Ave. will be the chain's 10th in Rhode Island. Construction is

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Dave's Marketplace to open Cranston location

Spring 2017 opening eyed at former Seabra on Pontiac Avenue

Posted

It’s official – Dave’s Marketplace will open a new location in Cranston.

The company formally announced the long-rumored plans this week. The new store at 550 Pontiac Ave. will be the chain’s 10th in Rhode Island. Construction is slated to begin shortly, with a spring 2017 opening date being eyed.

“Neighborhood markets are the cornerstone of communities,” Dave’s general manager Bill Hogan said through a statement. “We are happy to be able to expand into the vibrant neighborhoods of Cranston.”

In its announcement, the company states that Hogan and owner Dave Cesario have over several months “worked closely with local business advocates and city leadership to outline a neighborhood store steeped in Cranston culture coupled with the signature Dave’s quality and fresh prepared foods.”

“We look forward to meeting new friends and becoming part of Cranston's story,” Hogan said.

Mayor Allan Fung, through the statement, said his administration has “worked diligently with Dave’s Marketplace to make this a reality” and “will continue to work with them throughout the build-out process to get them open for our residents by the spring of 2017.”

“Their selection of our city is a testament to the positive things that are happening, from our expanding commercial base to continued job growth to our increased bond rating,” the mayor added.

City Councilman Donald Botts, in whose ward the planned market sits, praised the announcement via social media.

“This is what being pro-business leads to,” he writes. “Another great win for Cranston and Ward 2!”

Greg Phillips, who grew up in the area and now lives there with his own family, couldn’t be happier with the news.

Pausing on Tuesday morning as he brought his daughter, Bella, home from Little Shepard Preschool – which he also attended as a child – Phillips said he believes Dave’s will provide some welcome competition and an option to neighborhood residents.

He knows the property well. As a boy, one of his first jobs was at Ro-Jacks, one of the many chains – including Almacs, Star Market, and Hi-Lo – to occupy the site over the decades.

Phillips said the one disappointment has been the closing of the adjacent Tony’s Pizza Palace, which happened in August. He said he helped the owner move equipment out, and is hopeful the store will reopen nearby as rumored.

“That was my first job,” he said of Tony’s. “It’s sad to see them closed.”

The new Dave’s site most recently housed a Seabra Foods location, which closed its doors in July 2015. The building was constructed in 1959 and has nearly 29,000 square feet of space.

Dave’s first opened in 1969 as a small fruit shack. It currently has locations in Warwick, Coventry, Cumberland, East Greenwich, North Kingstown and Smithfield.

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