Group with ties to New England Patriots owner buys Worcester furniture store building

WORCESTER — A business entity affiliated with The Kraft Group has paid $1.8 million for a building on Grove Street that is steps away from a packaging company connected to the group.

The property at 112 Grove St., home to Rainbow Furniture since 1992, was bought by a holding company with a address familiar to football fans — One Patriot Place, Foxborough, the location of Gillette Stadium and headquarters of The Kraft Group.

Attempts to reach The Kraft Group about the purpose of the sale were not immediately successful. The owner of the furniture store was not available for comment.

The $1,795,000 sale of 112 Grove St. location adds to The Kraft Group's ownership in that area. The group has a packaging warehouse next to Rainbow Furniture, UN1F1ED² Global Packaging.

The New England Patriots owner got his business start when receiving ownership in 1968 of his father-in-law’s cardboard box company, Rand-Whitney, in Worcester.

In Boylston, Kraft opened two warehouses in spring 2023 to be partially used by Rand-Whitney .

Rainbow Furniture moved to Grove Street in 1992 when its original address at 191 Summer St. was slated to be razed for Saint Vincent Hospital.

An employee at the store, at work Tuesday while moving couches by the store's rear bay, said that the owner Robert H. Bentley was on vacation and was not immediately available to comment on the store’s future.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Group with ties to New England Patriots owner buys Worcester furniture store building