20-02-2025
Construction has started on new Lu-Mac's Plaza in Preston
Preston — Two large excavators sat idly on the frozen ground at the corner of Matthewson Mill Road and Route 2, but their presence and the work done before the winter freeze signal the next chapter for a long running local business.
Ken Zachem and his 32-year-old son, Max Zachem, have been planning to build the new Lu-Mac's Plaza on the large field across from the current plaza for more than five years. Repeated delays, including zoning issues and the COVID-19 pandemic intervened, delaying the plan for the 70-year-old Ken Zachem to retire and turn over the operation to his son.
With those issues cleared up, the machines started digging before the ground froze for the winter.
'Now it's all weather related,' Ken Zachem, a Preston selectman, said of the construction schedule. Workers need at least three consecutive days of warm weather to pour concrete, for example.
The new plaza will resemble a farmhouse attached to a barn and silo. Customers will enter the liquor store through the silo corner entrance. Inside, they will find a 2,500-square-foot liquor store with a unique feature.
A full-size frame of a NASCAR race car will be suspended from the ceiling, painted in veteran racer Max Zachem's signature orange and white colors with his Number 20 on the side panels. The car is a tribute to Max' beloved racing mentor, Bruce Bachta of Agawam, Mass., who died in 2023.
'The race car is special to me, because it was co-owned by us and him,' Max Zachem said. 'It's a unique piece. It ties everything all together – my racing career, the design of the building, the store.'
The Zachems hope to open the new plaza this summer. They also hope it spurs more economic development along the busy Route 2 corridor as drivers make their way toward Foxwoods Resort Casino and its new Great Wolf Lodge, an indoor water park and hotel.
'We're going to try to make it a destination, not just a liquor store,' Ken Zachem said.
A key centerpiece of the new plaza will be the return of Jimmies Ice Cream Shoppe, run by Jimmy Dubreiul. The shop had operated out of a small house on the same property which was demolished to make way for the new plaza.
The new Jimmies will grow into a year-round restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating. Outdoor diners in summer will overlook the field and woods to the east, rather than the Route 2 highway.
The new liquor store will offer wine tasting and an assortment of accessories, such as cups, drinking glasses and supplies that do not fit in the current cramped quarters.
The current Lu-Mac's Plaza faces Route 2 and contains a pizza restaurant, convenience store that houses the town's only post office and Lu-Mac's Package Store. It will remain but the current 1,600-square-foot liquor store space will be remodeled and rented to a new tenant, Ken Zachem said.
Ken Zachem, said he has spent most of his life at the junction of the two roads, helping his parents run the convenience store. Louise and Max Zachem opened their original store in a spot that is now the Route 2 highway. When the state improved the road, it displaced the store, moving it back to its present spot in 1962.
Ken now plans to ease into retirement, with an office in the upper story of the new silo.
