Armata’s Market working on rebuilding plans following devastating fire

SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - It has been nearly five months since the devastating fire tore through Maple Center Shopping Plaza in Longmeadow and destroyed five businesses including Armata’s Market.

Owner of Armata’s Market, Alexis Vallides, told Western Mass News plans to rebuild are in the works for Longmeadow’s town staple market – Armata’s Market - following the devastating fire in November that left the market and four other businesses in rubble.

“We signed a letter with intent to return to the plaza, so it will be a little bit of a slow process. Maybe by June, they’re hopeful to start seeing some building to get going and that’s our main focus to return back to Shaker Road,” Vallides explained.

This weekend marked a third major holiday that Armata’s Market cooked holiday meals from their temporary location. Vallides told us business is still booming thanks to ongoing support from the community.

“Easter was great. We had a successful catering menu for that we had about 150 people come, so it was great to see a lot of familiar faces more than anything else and just to see the community still supporting us,” Vallides noted.

Vallides added that temporary relocation efforts have been a challenge due to ongoing supply chain shortages, which is also impacting their rebuilding process at their Shaker Road location.

“For our rebuild equipment is probably a 12-month lead time, so that in itself is going to take a year for us to come back. It did kind of hurt our relocating hopes. We were looking to do maybe a temporary location, we weren’t able to go forward with the one location we had spotted just because equipment is too hard to find,” Vallides explained.

Despite the obstacles, Armata’s Market is planning to be up and running by next year.

“We’re hoping before the holidays of 2023 that would be our goal, you know. Somewhere maybe even summer 2023, so about a year a year and a half from now,” Vallides said.

Armata’s Market is currently operating out a commercial kitchen in Springfield and is still accepting catering orders for events.

Copyright 2022. Western Mass News (WGGB/WSHM). All rights reserved.