White River Junction
Signing the new tenant, who is expected to occupy the building sometime this summer, ends months of speculation about who would move into the postage-stamp size diner.
The Main Street building is currently being refurbished by Upper Valley real estate entrepreneur Mike Davidson, who has redeveloped several other properties on both sides of the Connecticut River.
The wife-and-husband team Lay Yi and Sarin Tin own and run the Phnom Penh Sandwich Station. They began selling their Cambodian-style sandwiches at the Hanover Farmers Market in 2016, and then from a food truck, before finally opening their own storefront on High Street in Lebanon last year.
Davidson, who owns a cluster of commercial and residential properties along South Main Street in White River Junction, bought The Polka Dot diner building from previous owner Mary Shatney for $90,000 in February.
Shatney, who ran the Polka Dot for 54 years, closed the diner in 2015 and the building had been empty ever since.
Davidson’s property company, Execusuite, said in a news release it expects Phnom Penh to open at the Polka Dot “later this summer” after renovations of the building are completed.