Twin City Plaza Is Filling Up Pad by Pad. The Old Kmart Is Waiting on Two Cities.

"I do know that the Singapore used to be a staple for people in the area and some people were upset that it closed," Patrick McFall, assistant general manager of Tavern in the Square, told the Sentinel & Enterprise in May. "Hopefully they can recognize that we want to create that same staple where people can come back to over and over."

He was talking about one restaurant. The quote also sums up the whole plaza. Nearly every arrival at Twin City Plaza this year has moved into a space a well-known predecessor left behind. The small pads are refilling quickly and in a steady order. The biggest building on the property, the former Kmart at 140 Whalon St., is still dark. It stayed dark for reasons that had little to do with demand.

Every new name took over an old address

Most of us still call it Kmart plaza. The Sentinel & Enterprise does too. Here's what the 2026 turnover looks like when you line up each new tenant with the one it replaced.

The pattern goes back further than this year. Nutrishop, the sports nutrition store, has been in the plaza for about two years in the space that used to be a Jenny Craig. Workers Credit Union didn't leave the area. It moved up the hill to the former GFA Federal Credit Union location near Five Guys, which opened its old spot for Starbucks.

A ready-made space shortens the timeline. In late May the Sentinel reported that Starbucks had its sign up and its drive-thru paved, and "all that's left is firing up the expresso machine." Three months later the shop was open. Leominster scheduled its ribbon cutting for July 23.

Chick-fil-A is the one arrival on the list that didn't reuse the old building. Its approved plan called for tearing down the old Uno's and building a new 5,200-square-foot restaurant with a two-lane drive-thru. Leominster's Planning Board approved that plan on June 2, 2025, and the restaurant opens 16 months later.

The early numbers suggest these tenants don't need long to build a following. Tavern in the Square general manager Melissa Garland called the first weeks "So far, so good, but it's been overwhelming." Hungry Bowl manager Kevin Zheng said the restaurant has "a lot of regulars coming back." Jersey Mike's manager Ethan Laraia said business picked up once they put up a road sign by the highway.

The 100,620-square-foot building that played by different rules

The former Kmart was built in 1970 and covers 100,620 square feet at 140 Whalon St. The obvious guess is that nobody wanted a building that big. According to Leo Xarras of Colwen Hotels, whose family ownership group now controls it, the real cause was a lease.

Xarras told the Sentinel & Enterprise that Kmart kept paying rent on the empty building for years, until about two years before his May 2026 interview. The chain was hoping to sublet it to another store, and that never happened. In his account, the long vacancy came from Kmart still paying rent for most of that time. Once those payments stopped, interested retailers weren't hard to find.

So a store that pays rent but has no customers can keep a building off the market for years, even when the building's condition isn't the obstacle. Once the rent stopped, the property changed hands in a few steps:

1. October 2025. Fitchburg MFB LLC sold the building to RB Salt Lake LLC for $5.6 million.
2. March 23, 2026. RB Salt Lake LLC transferred it for $1 to RB/LX Fitchburg LLC. Xarras described this as a transfer between members of the same family ownership group, all affiliated with Colwen Hotels.
3. May 2026. Xarras said the owners were talking with two retailers. Both already operate in the Fitchburg-Leominster area and would relocate. One plan includes a gas component and the other doesn't.

"Both are crazy successful businesses and both want to be located in Fitchburg and Leominster, and that's one of the best spots in the area."

Why the city line ruled out a hotel

Colwen is a hotel company, so a hotel was the natural first idea. Fitchburg Community Development & Planning Executive Director Liz Murphy explained why it was dropped. The building sits in Fitchburg, the city line is right at its doorstep, and the parking lot is in Leominster. Any hotel permitting would have had to clear both cities. Murphy said she was told the idea was abandoned because of that extra layer.

The Chick-fil-A site at 905 Merriam Ave. shows the simpler route. It went through Leominster's Planning Board, with Conservation, Health, Building, DPW, Police and Fire comments collected in a single meeting. The public reporting covers only the hotel idea, so it's still unclear what review a retail plan for the Kmart building will need.

Murphy also gave a positive read. "They said there's a lot more commercial interest in the Fitchburg area now," she said, adding that the owners have someone they're working with.

Where the Kmart timeline stands in October

In May, Xarras said the owners expected to know the tenant, and whether they'd renovate the existing building or put up a new one, within three to six months. That window runs from late August through late November, so we're in it now.

The latest public record doesn't show a decision yet. The Sentinel & Enterprise reported on Aug. 23 that nothing new had opened at the old Kmart. Neither Fitchburg's Sept. 22 Planning Board agenda nor Leominster's agenda for its Oct. 5 meeting lists a filing for the former Kmart or the plaza. Neither retailer has been named. Because both reportedly operate nearby already, an announcement for the Kmart site would also mean an existing local store leaving its current location. That's worth watching for whenever the news breaks.

For now, the most reliable early signal will be a site plan filing on either city's Planning Board agenda. Since the parking lot is in Leominster and the building is in Fitchburg, the filing could show up on either city's agenda, or on both.

Thursday's opening and what the Planning Board planned for

Chick-fil-A Leominster opens Thursday, Oct. 8, at 6:30 a.m. Hours are 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The restaurant offers dine-in, drive-thru, carry-out, mobile pickup, third-party delivery, catering pickup and Mobile Thru. Mary Herndon is the local Owner-Operator. She started with the company as a teenager and spent several years helping open restaurants around the country, including in the Boston area. If you tried the Chick-fil-A food truck at the Mall at Whitney Field last year, this is the permanent restaurant that followed.

On opening day, anyone who shows up in cow attire, whether a full suit or a cow-spotted accessory, can get one free entrée or kid's meal. The limit is one per person per day while supplies last, and no purchase is needed. The opening also includes a $25,000 donation from Chick-fil-A, Inc. to Feeding America to support the Worcester County Food Bank. Through the Shared Table program, surplus food from the restaurant will go to Ginny's Helping Hand in Leominster.

The traffic questions came up more than a year ago, and the June 2025 Planning Board minutes show how the site was designed to handle a crowd:

• Parking. There are 18 spaces in front of the restaurant. An existing parking area included in Chick-fil-A's lease brings the total to 86, against 52 required.
• Walking routes. The plan adds new crosswalks and paths connecting the restaurant to a remote parking area. Leominster Police asked for a pedestrian improvement plan with safe, well-lit crosswalk and sidewalk access across the plaza's main road. The board made that request a condition of approval.
• Circulation. The traffic consultant said the project doesn't change how vehicles get into the plaza. He said police had raised vehicle speeds inside the plaza and wanted more traffic routed onto Carriage Court.
• Deliveries. Large trucks are scheduled for early mornings and off-hours, unloading in the drive aisle in front of the building.

Police had also asked for a traffic peer review. Board member Weizer said he didn't think one was needed, and the site plan passed 8–0 with the department conditions attached. Before a certificate of occupancy could be issued, the Planning and Development Director had to confirm all conditions were met. I couldn't find a separate published traffic or police detail plan for opening week. If you're driving in Thursday morning, police said in the planning review that Carriage Court is the route they'd like drivers to use.

Crumbl is next in line. Its "We're moving on in!" sign went up in the space between Twin City Dental and Family Martial Arts Center, near Town Fair Tire. Paving near the site was done by late August, but no opening date has been announced.

I've lived in Leominster since 1990, and I watch Twin City Plaza closely because when a commercial space turns over, it affects the value of everything around it. If you own a multi-family, a small commercial building or a home near the Merriam Avenue and Whalon Street corridor and want to know where your property stands as the plaza changes, Doug Tammelin can run the numbers with you. Get your instant home valuation and we'll go over it together.