Swansea’s YMCA celebrates a decade of serving the community
The Stoico/FIRSTFED YMCA in Swansea at 217 Sharps Lot Rd. celebrated its 10-year milestone of serving the community on Dec. 17, 2025.
- A Burlington and a pet supply store have plans to move to Swansea.
- The two retailers applied for building permits in mid-December.
- Proposed renovations to 86 Swansea Mall Drive total to $1.6 million.
- Aldi and Five Below announced earlier in 2025 their plans to move to the Swansea plaza.
SWANSEA — Two new businesses will join the near-vacant plaza with the Dollar Tree at Swansea Mall Drive and Route 6. A pet supply store and Burlington — formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory — will join a new Aldi and Five Below in the mostly vacant shopping center where Price Rite and Toys R Us once stood.
Swansea’s Building Department confirmed that both a pet supply retailer and Burlington have applied for a building permit via the town’s online portal. According to documentation, Burlington and an unnamed pet supply retailer will move into 86 Swansea Mall Drive, owned by Gator Investments of Miami Lakes, Florida.
Burlington plans to occupy the old Toys R Us building and has submitted a Dec. 19 building permit to make $1 million in renovations to the building; the nature of “alterations” of the existing retail building remains unspecified.
The pet supply store will occupy 19,383 square feet of commercial space. According to a building permit dated Dec. 18, the company is planning $600,000 in renovations for an exterior shell and interior build within a preexisting retail space at that address.
Town admin says she’s ‘thrilled’ to see new businesses move in
Town Administrator Mallory Aronstein said she continues to be “thrilled when a business chooses to come to Swansea.”
“We are certainly putting in considerable effort to build partnerships with local businesses and make Swansea as hospitable as possible,” she said in an email to The Herald News.
New businesses fill in darkened storefronts at Swansea Mall Drive plaza
Discount retailer Five Below will take up an on-again, off-again vacant space at 58 and 86 Swansea Mall Drive, joining Dollar Tree and the incoming Aldi grocery chain on the 87,000-square-foot property.
Aldi, the grocery chain known for its range of affordable products, will be moving into 58 Swansea Mall Drive, in the plaza that currently houses Dollar Tree. It was the former location of Price Rite before it closed permanently in September 2020.
The buildings were built in 1982; the property is valued at $1,671,000, according to GIS maps.
Gator Investments is also listed in July 2025 permits to “demise existing building” into two tenant spaces for Aldi and Five Below. The work proposed there would cost $122,000, records state.
Burlington’s Swansea location will be central in regional cluster
Burlington is known for its discount prices on name brand merchandise that have attracted value shoppers over the past 50 years. Selling a range of apparel and home goods, Burlington operates over 1,000 stores nationwide, its website states.
Though not yet listed on a rundown for the store’s openings slated for 2026, a Burlington in Swansea will provide a central location between a Burlington store at 181 Mariano S Biship Blvd., in Fall River — about seven miles outside of town — and another in Seekonk at 150 Highland Ave.
Other Burlington stores in the SouthCoast are in Attleboro, with other locations in East Providence and Cranston, Rhode Island.
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