Virginia retailer Advance Auto Parts is taking over a Connecticut newspaper’s former Middletown circulation depot and converting it to accommodate by early June its second parts-house in the city.
Advance Auto has owned the Carquest chain since 2013, the Roanoke, Va., retailer’s spokeswoman said. It will relocate a smaller Carquest parts counter stationed for years in 5,200 square feet, right around the corner at 311 Main St., to the 7,000-square-foot former Hartford Courant depot at 373 East Main St., across from Stop & Shop Plaza.
As part of the move, the Carquest store will be rebranded as Advance Auto, the spokeswoman said. The Main Street location is leased from landlord A.C. Fonda Enterprises.
Once contractor American Jersey Construction completes its renovation, the East Main Street location will have 7,000 square feet to display and store inventory. It will have 10 to 12 employees.
There are 74 Advance Auto and Carquest stores in Connecticut.
Advance’s other Middletown store is at 856 Washington St.
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Berlin Playcare center
Avon’s Educational Playcare has opened its eighth Connecticut enriched childcare facility in Berlin, with a ninth Hartford area facility opening this summer.
Jane Porterfield and Gerry Pastor, Educational Playcare’s wife-husband founders who launched their concept in 1986, opened in late March in 11,000 square feet at 9 High Road that previously housed The Learning Experience childcare center.
Reno Properties Group LLC brokered the lease with landlord High Road Professional Center LLC.
The Berlin facility employs about 20, Pastor said. A grand opening is set for May.
The newest EP facility is set to open in late summer, Pastor said, in the Storrs Center retail-residential development across from the UConn main campus in Mansfield.
On Jan. 7, EP opened an East Hampton daycare center in the Edgewater Hill development on Route 66. The other locations are in Avon, Farmington, Simsbury, Wallingford, West Hartford and Windsor.
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$1.5M Willimantic plaza
A more than half-century-old strip shopping center in Windham’s Willimantic section sold recently for $1.5 million, a broker says.
1228 Realty LLC bought the 26,300-square-foot retail center at 1212-1228 Main Street from H&P Realty of Stamford, according to
broker Marc Gottesdiener & Co.
The center sits on 1.5 acres and opened in 1958 to house a Finast supermarket. In the 1960s, it was expanded to accommodate a Midas Muffler repair shop and space was added to house two more retail tenants.
However, only two restaurant tenants — China Buffet and Cinco de Mayo — have long-term leases in the plaza, Gottesdiener said.
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Collier’s sets leases
In Newington, Triumvirate Environmental Inc. signed a long-term lease for 15,500 square feet at 80 Fenn Road from landlord Fenn Road 80 LLC.
Colliers International was the landlord’s broker. Berkshire Hathaway Home Services represented Triumvirate.
In Vernon, Maclean Mechanical signed for 1,000 square feet at 77 Industrial Park Road.
The Mel Pet Realty Co. is landlord. Colliers was sole broker.
Deal Watch wants to hear from you. E-mail it, along with contact information to: gseay@HartfordBusiness.com.
Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal News Editor.
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