Dollar General construction underway
Oct. 4—WILLIMANTIC — Construction on the new Dollar General store in Willimantic is expected to be finished by the end of the year.
" They are moving very quickly," Windham Town Manager Jim Rivers said.
The 10,910 square- foot Dollar General store is being built on a 1.1 acre parcel at 1415 West Main St. The Veterans of Foreign Wars Gold Star Post 1724 sold the parcel to Garrett Homes LLC. for $578,000 and the sale was recorded on July 28.
Taxpayers approved the sale of the parcel during a town meeting in October 2021.
That was necessary because a 1947 deed stipulated that while VFW Gold Star Post 1724 owned the land, the town would take ownership of it if the VFW abandoned use of the property.
The Windham Planning and Zoning Commission approved a site plan for the business in May. This is the second Dollar General store to come to Windham, with a store already at 651 Windham Road. There are also Family Dollar and Dollar Tree stores in town.
While many residents have criticized the decision to bring another dollar store into town, the town's economic development department did a study that showed that the market supports it.
" Like them or hate them, it's just the way society is purchasing things right now," Rivers said. " Dollar General seems to be popping up everywhere."
He said the stores are " not necessarily" built in poor towns.
Rivers said he was recently in upper Michigan in the " middle of nowhere" and there are Dollar General stores in every little town there.
" That is the store that everybody goes to," he said. " That is like the new general store."
In addition to stores in Windham, there are Dollar General stores in Willington, Ashford, Mansfield, Coventry, Vernon, Bolton and other towns in the area.
Windham Director of Development Matthew Vertefeuille said site work for Dollar General began about three weeks ago and the foundation went in about a week- and- a- half ago.
" They don't waste any time," he said. " The quicker they can get them up, the quicker they can get them open."
Vertefeuille said it typically takes about 90 days to build a Dollar General store.
He said construction of the building started Wednesday and continued through the weekend.
" I'm very pleased," he said, speaking about the work on the site. "It's been a pretty easy construction site so far."
Vertefeuille said the workers are debating about the best location to tap into the sewer line, which they could do on West Main Street or Valley Street.
The Dollar General store is one of many development projects underway in Windham.
Another big project is the 136- unit apartment complex that will be built on Northridge Drive in North Windham.
" That project is about to
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