COVENTRY, R.I. (WPRI) — The abandoned shopping plaza on Route 3 in Coventry is officially on the market.
The 27.31-acre property on Tiogue Avenue has sat vacant for nearly three decades.
The property sits next door to a Burger King and used to be home to a Kmart, but that retail building has long since been demolished.
More than half of the property is now blocked off by a wire fence. Inside the plaza sits a lonely Citizens Bank drive-up ATM branch, which is surrounded by overgrowth and cracked asphalt.
The plaza was recently listed for sale or lease by Eastern Retail Properties and is being billed as a “development opportunity.”
Eastern Retail Properties offers a variety of potential uses for the property, including grocery, retail, medical, self-storage, hotel, day care, lumber yard, solar, manufacturing and distribution.
Jonathan Pascua, who was elected to the Coventry Town Council last month, described the plaza as a terrible eyesore.
“There is no bigger, hotter topic than this lot,” Pascua said. “Coventry has one major commercial area … and this is it.”
Pascua said now that the property is on the market, he plans on reaching out to developers to ensure that a successful commercial anchor moves in.
“There’s just a lot of different options here, and we’re really excited to see something possibly happen here,” he said.
