PROVIDENCE – Urban Greens Food Co-op has selected the site of the former Louttit Laundry building at 93 Cranston St. to locate a grocery store emphasizing natural and local foods.
The co-op, which has more than 630 members, announced its future consumer-owned grocery store at a celebration and informational session at the Columbus Theater Thursday night, according to a press release.
The co-op store will be the anchor commercial tenant in a mixed-use development including 39 residential units. Urban Greens will occupy 7,000 square feet.
The Co-op’s Cooperative Council & Site Committee has spent several years searching for a viable site.
“This site is ideal in so many ways for Urban Greens Food Co-op,” said Philip Trevett, an Urban Greens cooperative council member. “We’re incredibly excited to help meet the food needs of our immediate neighborhood residents, while at the same time helping to expand … retail access to locally-sourced foods in the Providence metro area.”
Abandoned since 1985, and an empty lot since 2008, the site owned by the Providence Redevelopment Authority was a Brownfield site, requiring environmental remediation. The site is located where three diverse neighborhoods converge: Federal Hill, the West End and the upper south side of Providence. Just west of downtown, it is accessible from Interstate 95 and routes 6 and 10.
The PRA and Urban Greens have worked together over the last two years to create a plan for the site, and find a developer to purchase and develop it. The development team is a partnership of Bourne Avenue Capital Partners, D+P Real Estate, and Truth Box Studio.
Along with the project developer, the Urban Greens Council and Site Committee unveiled initial plans, including preliminary building design, and presented information about the Co-op’s funding structure and overall project timeline.
For information, visit www.UrbanGreens.com.
