Cumberland Farms Execs Bullish on Apponaug Four Corners Store

Warwick, RI – Mayor Scott Avedisian walked the new Apponaug Four Corners Cumberland Farms at 3335 Post Road with local managers Friday morning, getting a look at the latest business to take advantage of the Apponaug Circulator Project‘s promised travel improvements.

The Historic Commission approved Cumberland Farms, Inc.’s plans to demolish the old Gulf gas station and purchase the adjacent lot in March 2014, according to the Mayor’s office.

The new 4,513 square-foot building boasts architectural features in keeping with the guidelines established for the historic neighborhood. The property also includes site walls to create a “street edge” making the location more pedestrian friendly.

John Wilbur, area sales manager for Cumberland Farms, said the company sought to build at the site in anticipation of the lot becoming more accessible at the end of the RIDOT’s three-year, $29.9 million project.

“When this is all done, we’re hoping people will be able to take a left turn out of here,” Wilbur said. That’s problematic with today’s traffic. Richard Crenca, principal planner for Warwick, said 26,000 cars per day travel through Apponaug presently.

The entire project, which will put roundabouts at Apponaug Four Corners, the Centerville Road and Tollgate Road intersection, the Greenwich Avenue and Veteran’s Memorial Drive intersection, and the Veterans Memorial Drive and Post Road Extension intersection, is expected to be complete in 2017.

When the project is finished, and the three major roundabouts and two smaller roundabouts (including the one at Apponaug Four corners), are finished, traffic that’s just traveling through Apponaug can keep rolling through, while only traffic intent on business in Apponaug will flow past the Cumberland Farms at Apponaug Four Corners.

At that point, only 5,000 cars per day will be passing the new Cumberland Farms, Crenca said. Dino DeThomas, chief of real estate with Cumberland Farms, isn’t worried about losing all that traffic, …”because it will allow people easier access,” he said.