Copyright The Boston Globe
PROVIDENCE — One year after a grocery mainstay in Providence closed its doors, the owner of the property has signed a 20-year lease with Whole Foods. Whole Foods signed the lease with owner Riverview Retail LLC on Oct. 1 to take over the former Eastside Marketplace building at 165 Pitman St., according to a memorandum filed with the Providence Recorder of Deeds. A separate document says the property obtained a $20 million loan on Oct. 21. Whole Foods, which operates a much smaller store a block away on Waterman Street, did not respond to a request for comment. It’s not immediately clear when the store will open or what the plans are for the Waterman Street location, which is about a third of the size. Providence residents have been clamoring for news on the vacant supermarket — the anchor tenant of a large shopping plaza on the East Side — since it closed in November 2024. Some hoped a grocer that doesn’t already have a Providence location — like Market Basket, Wegmans or Dave’s Fresh Marketplace — might move in. The Pitman Street plaza, called Riverview Place, has other tenants, including Walgreens, a liquor store, a dry cleaner and medical offices. But its 300-space parking lot has been mostly empty since the supermarket closed. Advertisement Whole Foods currently has two stores in Providence, including the Waterman Street location. After Amazon acquired the supermarket chain in 2017, the company’s grocery business has scaled up and incorporated more technology, including palm-print payments and delivery and pickup through Amazon. Other major grocery chains in Providence include Stop & Shop, Trader Joe’s and Aldi. Eastside Marketplace was once an beloved independent market, but was purchased by Stop & Shop’s parent company Ahold Delhaize in 2014. It stayed open and was mostly folded into the Stop & Shop brand, though the name never changed. The company closed 32 store locations in New England last year, including Eastside Marketplace and a Stop & Shop in Johnston. In the 20-year lease agreement with Whole Foods, the owner of the plaza agreed not to rent other spaces in the plaza to any salad bar, deli, pizza place or other grab-and-go food establishments. It specifically names Sweetgreen, b.good and Chopt as examples of establishments that are banned. Advertisement One ice cream store and one dine-in restaurant with a liquor license will be allowed, according to the lease (the plaza currently has neither). An exception is written into the lease for Bottles Fine Wine, which is next to the supermarket. Rhode Island law does not allow grocery stores to sell alcohol. The memo says “prohibited uses” of the property include bowling alleys, movie theaters, houses of worship, schools, residential properties and marijuana dispensaries. Steph Machado can be reached at steph.machado@globe.com. Follow her @StephMachado.
