Downtown may bag grocer
Roche Bros. goes for Millennium Tower lease
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
By: Donna Goodison
Roche Bros. is in lease negotiations to open its first Boston grocery store in Downtown Crossing, sources told the Herald.
The Wellesley-based, family-owned chain of suburban supermarkets is hammering out plans for its first urban market at Millennium Partners’ $630 million Millennium Tower project, which includes redevelopment of the adjacent Filene’s building, according to sources familiar with the talks.
Roche Bros. spokeswoman Lisa Lazarczyk, meanwhile, said the company was considering a number of locations within its market area. “However, at this time, we can’t discuss any other locations than the Medfield one,” she said.
Millennium principal Anthony Pangaro yesterday said he’d neither confirm nor deny the negotiations.
“It’s fantastic news,” Rosemarie Sansone, president of the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District, a property owner-funded group that’s been working to revitalize Downtown Crossing, said of the reported talks.
“It’s absolutely the right brand,” Sansone said. “Roche Bros. has a fabulous reputation, and people in this neighborhood and people in this district will be pleased. It is the first question in every conversation with residents, with people interested in what’s going on in the district and other businesses that are moving into the district: What about a grocery store?”
Roche Bros., which has 18 Massachusetts stores, announced last week that it would open a new smaller, neighborhood store format in Medfield next February, with approximately 9,000 square feet.
Millennium’s Downtown Crossing project includes 240,000 square feet of retail space. Both the developer and the city have wanted to bring in a grocery store to cater to the growing number of condo residents in the area — including those who will move into Millennium Tower’s 450 luxury units — in addition to workers.
The 61-year-old Roche Bros. chain is small, but very well-respected, according to Mike Berger, senior editor of the Griffin Report of Food Marketing in Duxbury. “(They’re) very big on fresh and perishables, quality stuff,” he said. “They really do a lot of customer services. They’ve (also) really grown in catering and prepared foods.”
A Downtown Crossing location would be a unique opportunity for the company, according to Norwell retail consultant Michael Tesler. “It gives them the opportunity to be very innovative, very creative,” he said. “It upgrades their brand and the opportunities for their brand.”
