Shopping
Maple Center Shopping Plaza, once home of Armata’s, takes shape for fall reopening
LONGMEADOW — Construction continues on a new Maple Center Shopping Plaza in Longmeadow replacing a strip mall — once home to Armata’s Market — destroyed by fire just before Thanksgiving 2021.
The plaza will be ready for occupancy by late fall, according to leasing agents at NAI Plotkin in Springfield.
The town building department said the plans call for five retail locations in the strip center that will fit the footprint of the old plaza at 899-925 Shaker Rd. Work began earlier this year.
Owners Pun Longmeadow Realty, a family company based in Southwick and Westfield, didn’t return calls for comment.
The 64-year-old plaza — which also had five businesses — was consumed just before Thanksgiving 2021 by a four-alarm fire. Inflicting $5 million in damage, firefighters said it was the most destructive fire in town history.
Armata’s Market will not return. The family instead bought Village Food Mart in Hampden in 2022.
Evan C. Plotkin, president and CEO of NAI Plotkin, said there isn’t much to announce, yet, about new tenants at the plaza.
“We’re just talking now.” “I think we’ll be successful in redeveloping that center.”
The owners are aiming for quality retailers, possibly a bank branch.
The old center, built in 1960, was successful for years, especially its liquor store. The center is located in the far southern end of affluent Longmeadow, near the borders with East Longmeadow and Enfield, Connecticut.
Yadira Quinones owned The Longmeadow Salon in the old plaza before the fire. She moved her business to share space with Roots to Ends salon in East Longmeadow, but lost customers in the process.
“It’s been very tough,” she said. “The area is saturated with salons.”
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