There appears to be a reasonably good chance a new business will fill the building located at 521 Main St. about to be vacated by long-time tenant Citizens Bank.

Citizens recently announced its plans to close the branch, which will occur as of Wednesday, March 19. A sign posted on the door directs customers to its other nearby situated at 184 County Road in Barrington.

Citizens does not own the property, rather it leases it from current owner Legacy Real Estate Ventures headquartered in Boston. That agreement is up in about two months.

Listed at the appropriately-named Commercial Search real estate site, www.commercialsearch.com, the 521 Main St. spot in Warren is a 2,328 square foot structure built in 1980 and is being offered as either an out-right sale or for rent.

The building was last on the market in the winter of 2021. Then, Legacy Real Estate Ventures purchased the property for a price of $1,061,900 or $456 per sf.

The location was last assessed in 2024 for tax purposes on behalf of the town by Northeast Revaluation Group  (a subsidiary of Catalis Tax and CAMA Inc.) accordingly: land, $202,100; building, $784,300; parcel total, $986,400.

It's perch on a corner lot at the junction of Main and Washington Streets seems likely to be an attractive spot to potential buyers. The building includes a drive-thru window, which could be used for various means of customer service. 

One caveat, Washington Street is a one-way road, meaning traffic would filter west towards Water Street and other the extremely narrow streets in the historic neighborhood.

JP Plunkett, principal of the Boston-based Red Dome Realty and the listing agent for the property, said it was Citizens which opted not to engage in extending its lease.

Plunkett continued, affirming Legacy was open to selling or leasing the 0.32-acre lot.

"There's been an awesome amount of interest, lots of activity," Plunkett said during a phone conversation Tuesday evening, Jan. 7. "We're very close to something, but I can't say anything further."

Plunkett said the negotiations to possibly complete the transaction, which he deemed positive and moving in the directions towards an out-right sale, would likely take another "six to seven" weeks.

"There's more work that needs to be done, but we're working in a really good faith way," he said.

Plunkett, speaking on behalf of Legacy, said he could not divulge the name of the potential purchaser, nor would he hint at what type of business would be operated from the location.

"It's not appropriate of me to talk about who the buyer would be for confidentiality reasons. I don't want to get too granular," said Plunkett. "But what I will say is it would be something the community would be very pleased about. It would be well received by the community. It's a classy, classy outfit."

Plunkett said the purchaser would also operate the business endeavor at the location, continuing the prospective new owner would be a "job creator" and that it would be a "win-win" for that entity and the town.

"If the deal closes, and that's still an if, but if it closes, the buyer will also be the occupant of the building," Plunkett said.

He added, again if and when the purchase is completed the transition between operations from Citizens to its next incarnation would be a "quick turn-around."

As for Providence-based Citizens, the shutting down of its Main Street, Warren, location came as part of a larger round of branch closures in six states, including another in the East Bay.

The bank is closing its 275 Newport Ave. branch, like the one in Warren, another stand-alone building in East Providence. Similarly as well, there is another

In total, Citizens planned to shutter 15 branches. The others are located in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio.

According to a press release issued by the bank, at its peak Citizens had 82 branches in Rhode Island. With the latest closures, that number is now down to 53.

The aforementioned statement included the following, “We’ve been on a journey at Citizens to evolve how our customers bank with us, and we continually review customer patterns to evolve and adjust branch strategy across our network...Branches remain a key part of our overall strategy to help customers bank when, where and how they prefer, and we remain committed to supporting and engaging within the communities we serve."