Retail on the Thames: Exploring Retail of Eastern Connecticut: Taftville's Completely Vacant Plaza

Welcome to another edition of Retail on the Thames! Today we're going to be looking at one of Eastern Connecticut's largest and most interesting retail vacancies. Not a single tenant is open, and the entire plaza has sat abandoned for almost 2 years

INFO: Built in 1959, this plaza is located on Route 12 in the Taftville neighborhood in Norwich, and is one of the smaller ones in town. It only had 5 tenants at the end of it's life. These were Starrwood Market, Gary's Wine and Spirits, Annie Lee's Southern Cuisine, Subway, and Core Plus Federal Credit Union. Starrwood closed in in the summer of 2018, and Gary's and Subway closed later in the year. Annie's and Core Plus had already been closed for a bit before the other tenants. Now let's get to the pictures.

PICTURES:

Starting off the plaza is Starrwood Market. I was surprised to find out this used to be an A&P a long time ago. I don't know exactly when A&P opened or closed but I'm guessing it opened circa 1959 when the plaza was built, and closed sometime before 2003. This is due to an article reporting on Starwood's closure stating that Starwood's former owner bought the building in 2003. The article also states that the property had some issues while it was open, such as some electrical problems in 2015. By July of 2018, the market had closed.

I couldn't see much of the interior due to materials blocking my view, but it looked quite empty.

Some more interesting sights here included dirty fluorescent lights and a USPS mailbox.

Now let's check out the plaza's smaller tenants.

Next up is Gary's, a typical liquor store that closed in either late-2018 or early-2019.

The interior looked gutted and gross, but that drink cabinet looked cool.

Here's Annie Lee's, which was open for a very short amount of time, and by that, I mean a few years at the most. Beforehand, this space was home to a restaurant called Open Rice.

The interior was going through renovations, but I'm unsure whether it's for Annie Lee's or a new tenant.

Subway closed around the same time as Gary's, and it wasn't a huge loss, as there's two others in Norwich. One is at the forgettable Salem Plaza, and the other is at an unnamed plaza in Norwichtown.