On June 1, 1979, a new West Concord resident tapped her umbrella on the window of the West Concord 5 & 10 after it had closed for the day. In a Concord Bridge history column this spring, Mari Weinberg remembered how Mrs. Forbes and her husband, John, opened the store again to sell her a fan on a hot, rainy night. She called the shop "a treasure chest to fulfill almost every need." That storefront is now Debra's Next Door.
This month, construction fencing went up around 166 Commonwealth Avenue, near Laws Brooks Road. According to The Concord Bridge, Town Planner Elizabeth Hughes said crews would break ground soon on a country store that people in town keep comparing to the 5 & 10.
West Concord changes in two ways at once. Storefront by storefront, old roles are being filled again by new owners. Separately, on the former MCI-Concord land just past that same corner, a plan for something the village has never had is moving through the town on a clock measured in years. Both affect your Saturday. They just arrive at very different times.
The gas station is being rebuilt around a 1979 idea
The site at 166 Commonwealth was E & S Mobile Service for 57 years until it closed in 2025. In 2023 another developer proposed housing and commercial space for the parcel, then withdrew the plan after community pushback. Mendon businessman Kevin Meehan bought the property in August 2025 and brought a much smaller idea to the West Concord Advisory Committee: a full-service gas station and an Imperial-branded country store, modeled on the one he already runs in Mendon.
The goods he described in February were old-time candy, toys, natural soaps and household hardware. When Town boards approved the project over the summer, the promise was a store carrying candy, local crafts and hardware items. As The Concord Bridge reported, several committee members noticed the resemblance to the 5 & 10, which closed in 2020. "It is missed dearly," said committee member Nicole Hammond. Meehan described his own concept as "kind of nostalgic."
On the site plan, the gateway gets softer. The new store will be smaller than the current garage. The lot gets a landscaped area along Nashoba Brook plus more grass and trees, and the plan has six parking spaces, two of them with EV charging. February's plans also included a crosswalk to Kenneth J. Dunn Square. No opening date has been announced.
Up and down Commonwealth, the same uses keep coming back
The country store follows a pattern the village has repeated for more than a year. When a West Concord storefront changes hands, the new tenant tends to do much the same job as the old one.
| The spot | What it was | What it is now |
|---|---|---|
| 166 Commonwealth Ave. | E & S Mobile Service, 57 years | Country store and gas station, under construction |
| Former West Concord 5 & 10 | Five-and-dime, closed 2020 | Debra's Next Door |
| 135 Commonwealth Ave. | Concord Flower Shop under Helen Halloran | Concord Flower Shop under Renata Paes |
| Former Reasons to be Cheerful | Ice cream parlor, closed 2024 | Eva's Little Kitchen |
The florist is the clearest case. After 43 years, Helen Halloran planned to retire, and fellow florist Renata Paes took ownership on August 1. Halloran told The Concord Bridge the shop would carry on. The shop still stocks cut flowers from local farms and still delivers locally.
Eva's Little Kitchen opened in mid-August 2025 in the old Reasons to be Cheerful parlor. It is the second location of a Bedford bakery and café, serving baked goods, coffee and sandwiches. The building kept its role as a daytime stop for families. One gap remains. Families interviewed on its porch by The Concord Bridge pointed out that West Concord no longer has a comparable ice cream spot.
The long-running anchors are still in place. Woods Hill Table at 24 Commonwealth Ave., which Kristin Canty opened in 2015, reopened September 22 after a temporary closure. Canty's Adelita is a short walk away at 1200 Main St. Debra's Natural Gourmet at 98 Commonwealth has been in business for 37 years, and CLAY art & concept runs a working ceramic studio and shop at 114 Commonwealth. Since 2019, Art for All at 152 Commonwealth has painted eight murals across the community.
This is a village that has kept its character by refilling its rooms with familiar uses. The one thing it has not added in that time is a new kind of place.
The plan that would add something new runs on a different clock
The country store's corner sits at one end of the village, near Rideout Park and the former MCI-Concord campus. The state closed the prison in June 2024. The Town's Community Development Department is now drafting a master plan and new zoning for more than 50 acres there, together with the adjacent Junction Village parcel. It is working with the MCI Concord Master Plan Committee and the state's Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, which owns the land.
The scale is what makes the site different from anything else on Commonwealth Avenue. At a September 9 public update, consultant Jeff Speck of Speck Dempsey presented a revised concept with roughly 100,000 square feet of retail in deeper buildings around a neighborhood core. The June draft had about 25,000 to 50,000 square feet. For a sense of proportion, The Concord Bridge set those figures against the developments officials studied for ideas. The Point in Littleton has about 540,000 square feet of leasable area, and Maynard Crossing has 296,000 square feet of non-residential space. Select Board Chair Wendy Rovelli told the paper there will be no big-box stores at the former prison, and the consultants have shown little enthusiasm for offices.
The revision also changed how people would get in. Planners dropped a proposed Commonwealth Avenue roundabout in favor of a signalized intersection. They added a second entry near the spot where the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail crosses Commonwealth, and they hope to add a third that reaches Route 2 near the Assabet River. "We are looking for additional ways to spread that pain," consultant Erin Cameron said of traffic.
The forum also produced the line that explains why the retail number matters. A resident who moved to town in 2025 told The Concord Bridge that she would like to see new restaurants and bars, because right now there is "nowhere to go after 6 p.m., even on a Saturday." Here is the schedule for that neighborhood core, as the committee laid it out:
- November 10, 2026. The Select Board, Planning Board and master plan committee meet jointly to review the draft zoning.
- May 2027. The zoning goes to Annual Town Meeting.
- December 2027. DCAMM finalizes and issues its request for proposals.
- 2028 to 2030. A developer is selected, and design and permitting continue.
- Early 2030s. Demolition and construction begin.
The project's Reimagine MCI Concord website gives 2028 as the earliest any construction could be seen on the site. The committee's more detailed September schedule puts the start of building in the early 2030s. Neither date makes it a near-term change. The site's own materials describe the current drawings as an illustrative plan and a framework for zoning, not a final development proposal. If you missed the October 6 zoning information session, the town has posted the recording and slides on the site.
What the village holds between now and the holidays
In the meantime, the village calendar runs through the same buildings that have hosted it for decades. Here is what is coming up in and around West Concord this season:
- Monday, November 2, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Fowler Library at 1322 Main St. dedicates "Minuteman in Wonderland," a work made with artists from the Art for All community.
- November 15, 22 and 29. West Concord Union Church at 1317 Main St. holds a card sale and visioning forum on the 15th, a dedication and celebration on the 22nd, and the first Sunday of Advent on the 29th. Sunday worship is at 9:45 a.m., and the church notes its calendar is subject to change.
- Friday, December 4, 1:30 to 3 p.m. Fowler's Afternoon Tea Book Club holds its combined November and December meeting.
- Sunday, December 6, 3 to 6 p.m. Concord's town tree lighting. The parade leaves Hunt Gym at 4:40 p.m., and the tree is lit around 5 p.m.
- Mid-December. The West Concord Holiday Stroll ran on December 13 last year, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
By the time the MCI zoning reaches Town Meeting in May, the corner at 166 Commonwealth may finally be selling candy and hardware again. Under the committee's schedule, the first new buildings on the prison land would follow about five years later.
If you're weighing what the MCI-Concord plan and the new storefronts along Commonwealth Avenue mean for a home in West Concord, Teri Adler is glad to talk it through. She follows these meetings closely and can help you make sense of each step as the plan moves forward. Let's Connect.
