Restaurant Depot looks to be first business at WBDC’s GreenTech Park

Restaurant Depot is looking to open a 50,000-square-foot wholesale warehouse in the Worcester Business Development Corp.’s GreenTech Park, the first tenant announced for the former Saint-Gobain campus redevelopment project. 

The Worcester Planning Board approved a site plan during its Wednesday meeting for the project, according to video of the hearing. The location would be Restaurant Depot’s second Central Massachusetts location, joining a wholesale warehouse in Milford.

Headquartered in Whitestone, New York, Restaurant Depot only sells products to members who are foodservice, deli, or nonprofit organizations. The fact the business won’t be open to the general public allows it to operate in GreenTech Park, as wholesaling is considered a business use that complies with the site’s Manufacturing General 1 zoning. 

The Restaurant Depot location is slated for a 4.4-acre site in the industrial park, adjacent to I-190 and bordered by Stores Street and Frontage Road. Plans for the site call for 171 parking spaces and five loading bays.

Separately, the application details plans by WBDC to modify and widen New Bond Street, Stores Street, and C Street as part of roadway and infrastructure improvements to accommodate bicycle and pedestrian traffic. 

Roberta Brien, executive vice president at WBDC, said at the meeting new public streets in GreenTech Park will allow local residents to travel through the area in ways that weren’t possible while the Saint-Gobain site was in operation.

The project will still require approvals from the Worcester Conservation Commission.

Joshua Lee Smith of Worcester-based Bowditch & Dewey is representing Restaurant Depot for this project.

The announcement of the new Restaurant Depot site comes as restaurant supply giant Sysco has announced plans to acquire the company for $29.1 billion, according to Food & Wine.