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Jul 14, 2023

Plainville skyline to change with construction of 12

Contractors in Plainville are building the foundation for a supermarket

Contractors in Plainville are building the foundation for a supermarket warehouse that will be one of the tallest buildings in central Connecticut outside of Hartford.

The 250,000-square-foot warehouse for frozen foods will serve Stop & Shop stores in New England and will rise 140 feet, or roughly 12 stories.

Ahold Delhaize USA, parent company of Stop & Shop, is promising 200 new jobs, even though the warehouse will be heavily automated.

"They will be the second biggest taxpayer in town when they open, and they’re guaranteeing at least 30 of the new jobs will go to Plainville people," Town Manager Robert Lee said. "It's going to be a very significant boost to our grand list."

Even with a package of tax incentives, the warehouse will be paying about $850,000 a year in taxes when it opens in mid-2022, Lee said. And so far this year, it has generated more than $700,000 in building fees — about three times what the town collected from all other projects last year.

Workers are preparing to pour the foundation now and will begin erecting the complex array of racks and storage systems in late winter, town officials said. Americold, an Atlanta-based refrigerated warehouse builder, is constructing the building along with Ahold Delhaize USA.

The Otis Elevator tower in Bristol will easily remain the tallest building in the region at the equivalent of 29 stories, but the new warehouse will still tower over northern Plainville.

"This will be just shy of 150 feet tall. It will dominate the skyline around there," Town Engineer John Bossi said.

Some residents on the Plainville Talk page on Facebook have been questioning whether such a tall building is safe near Robertson Airport, where private planes fly in and out year round. The Federal Aviation Administration vetted the plans last year, town officials noted.

The warehouse is being built on vacant land in an industrial park along Northwest Drive, and the companies predict a little more than 100 tractor trailers a day will use it.

With operating hours from 3 a.m. to 10 p.m., that will average out to roughly one truck every 10 minutes, Lee said. He expects most will use Route 177 to reach the Route 72 connector to I-84.

Ahold Delhaize USA plans the Plainville center to serve Stop & Shop as well as its other supermarket brands in the Northeast. It is building a sister facility in Pennsylvania for its mid-Atlantic brands.

Based in the Netherlands, the company operates Food Lion, Giant Food, The Giant Company and Hannaford stores as well as Stop & Shop. It runs nearly 2,000 stores in all across 23 states, and bills itself as the largest grocery retail group on the East Coast.

Don Stacom can be reached at [email protected].

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