By Mike Rego
SEEKONK — Attention local shoppers: Two major national retailers will soon be coming to the area, taking up renovated spaces of the old Benny’s Store located on East Providence’s border with Seekonk near the intersection of Routes 44 and 114A.
Ace Hardware will be the anchor tenant at the location, occupying the majority of the square footage at the store while Dollar General, which recently took over operations of the discount front from Family Dollar on Newport Avenue in the Rumford section of the city, will be housed in the smaller portion.
According to contractors currently on site renovating the building, Ace Hardware will maintain about two-thirds of the space on the west side of the building closer to where the former Benny’s tire service bay was located. Dollar General with repatriate the east end of the structure, where other smaller sized businesses once operated before Benny’s expanded to take over all of the building some two decades ago.
The property is under the ownership of the Carpionato Group, which purchased all 29 Benny’s stores in Rhode Island and Massachusetts in late 2017. The two area locations, on Route 44/Taunton Avenue and Pawtucket Avenue in East Providence, have each been vacant since around the time the sale took place.
The new Ace Hardware and Dollar General stores in Seekonk are eyeing a spring 2019 opening date.