by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
Riverside residents can soon revel in a new retail alternative. Construction of Riverside Market Square at Riverside Avenue and Goodwin Street — site of the old Riverside Hospital — is on schedule and will be complete early next month.
“We should have the certificate of occupancy within two weeks,” said Dave O’Brien, project co-superintendent of Hawkins Construction, Inc., general contractor from Tarpon Springs. “The retail, some of them, will be open by then and some of them will still be doing build-outs.”
The mall, three blocks south of Five Points, will eventually offer 10 small tenants, including Papa Johns, H&R Block, Quizno’s Subs, Starbucks, Nevia’s Hair Care, Mailboxes Etc., Riverside Dry Cleaners and China Joy Restaurant.
The Publix grocery store will open June 6, filling a void in shopping options for Riverside residents. As of now, the nearest large grocery options are on Roosevelt Boulevard or downtown.
The project fell behind early, according to co-superintendent Sam Griffin of Hawkins, while crews cleaned a lot of debris from the site.
“No, but we were expecting that,” joked Griffin. “There were just a lot of rocks. It’s all been sifted out.”
To cope with drainage problems on the small site, an 80-by-120 underground vault was installed in the middle of the parking lot in lieu of a retention pond.
“There’s no room for a pond, so we put in a storm vault,” said O’Brien. “All the storm water goes in there and eventually to the river.”
Landscaping is scheduled to be planted next week.