diff --git a/exec/java-exec/src/main/java/org/apache/drill/exec/store/dfs/FileSelection.java b/exec/java-exec/src/main/java/org/apache/drill/exec/store/dfs/FileSelection.java
index d5deefa6843..be3e57d0e8f 100644
--- a/exec/java-exec/src/main/java/org/apache/drill/exec/store/dfs/FileSelection.java
+++ b/exec/java-exec/src/main/java/org/apache/drill/exec/store/dfs/FileSelection.java
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.ArrayUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
+import org.apache.drill.exec.store.parquet.Metadata.ParquetTableMetadata_v1;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileStatus;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
 
@@ -44,6 +45,10 @@ public class FileSelection {
   public List<String> files;
   public String selectionRoot;
 
+  // this is a temporary location for the reference to Parquet metadata
+  // TODO: ideally this should be in a Parquet specific derived class.
+  private ParquetTableMetadata_v1 parquetMeta = null;
+
   public FileSelection() {
   }
 
@@ -60,6 +65,13 @@ public FileSelection(List<FileStatus> statuses) {
     this(statuses, null);
   }
 
+  public FileSelection(List<String> files, String selectionRoot,
+      ParquetTableMetadata_v1 meta) {
+    this.files = files;
+    this.selectionRoot = selectionRoot;
+    this.parquetMeta = meta;
+  }
+
   public FileSelection(List<FileStatus> statuses, String selectionRoot) {
     this.statuses = statuses;
     this.files = Lists.newArrayList();
@@ -128,6 +140,16 @@ public List<FileStatus> getFileStatusList(DrillFileSystem fs) throws IOException
     return statuses;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Return the parquet table metadata that may have been read
+   * from a metadata cache file during creation of this file selection.
+   * It will always be null for non-parquet files and null for cases
+   * where no metadata cache was created.
+   */
+  public ParquetTableMetadata_v1 getParquetMetadata() {
+    return parquetMeta;
+  }
+
   private static String commonPath(FileStatus... paths) {
     String commonPath = "";
     String[][] folders = new String[paths.length][];
diff --git a/exec/java-exec/src/main/java/org/apache/drill/exec/store/parquet/ParquetFormatPlugin.java b/exec/java-exec/src/main/java/org/apache/drill/exec/store/parquet/ParquetFormatPlugin.java
index ac0d8e335ef..c30806c42de 100644
--- a/exec/java-exec/src/main/java/org/apache/drill/exec/store/parquet/ParquetFormatPlugin.java
+++ b/exec/java-exec/src/main/java/org/apache/drill/exec/store/parquet/ParquetFormatPlugin.java
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ private FileSelection expandSelection(DrillFileSystem fs, FileSelection selectio
         // /a/b/c.parquet and the format of the selection root must match that of the file names
         // otherwise downstream operations such as partition pruning can break.
         Path metaRootPath = Path.getPathWithoutSchemeAndAuthority(metaRootDir.getPath());
-        return new FileSelection(fileNames, metaRootPath.toString(), true);
+        return new FileSelection(fileNames, metaRootPath.toString(), metadata /* save metadata for future use */);
       } else {
         // don't expand yet; ParquetGroupScan's metadata gathering operation
         // does that.
diff --git a/exec/java-exec/src/main/java/org/apache/drill/exec/store/parquet/ParquetGroupScan.java b/exec/java-exec/src/main/java/org/apache/drill/exec/store/parquet/ParquetGroupScan.java
index 094f00fb388..55eed43fc3f 100644
--- a/exec/java-exec/src/main/java/org/apache/drill/exec/store/parquet/ParquetGroupScan.java
+++ b/exec/java-exec/src/main/java/org/apache/drill/exec/store/parquet/ParquetGroupScan.java
@@ -119,6 +119,12 @@ public class ParquetGroupScan extends AbstractFileGroupScan {
   private List<SchemaPath> columns;
   private ListMultimap<Integer, RowGroupInfo> mappings;
   private List<RowGroupInfo> rowGroupInfos;
+  /**
+   * The parquet table metadata may have already been read
+   * from a metadata cache file earlier; we can re-use during
+   * the ParquetGroupScan and avoid extra loading time.
+   */
+  private ParquetTableMetadata_v1 parquetTableMetadata = null;
 
   /*
    * total number of rows (obtained from parquet footer)
@@ -177,6 +183,7 @@ public ParquetGroupScan( //
     }
 
     this.selectionRoot = selectionRoot;
+    this.parquetTableMetadata = selection.getParquetMetadata();
 
     init();
   }
@@ -201,6 +208,7 @@ private ParquetGroupScan(ParquetGroupScan that) {
     this.partitionValueMap = that.partitionValueMap == null ? null : new HashMap(that.partitionValueMap);
     this.fileSet = that.fileSet == null ? null : new HashSet(that.fileSet);
     this.usedMetadataCache = that.usedMetadataCache;
+    this.parquetTableMetadata = that.parquetTableMetadata;
   }
 
 
@@ -486,7 +494,6 @@ public void setEndpointByteMap(EndpointByteMap byteMap) {
   }
 
   private void init() throws IOException {
-    ParquetTableMetadata_v1 parquetTableMetadata;
     List<FileStatus> fileStatuses = null;
     if (entries.size() == 1) {
       Path p = Path.getPathWithoutSchemeAndAuthority(new Path(entries.get(0).getPath()));
@@ -498,7 +505,9 @@ private void init() throws IOException {
       }
       if (metaPath != null && fs.exists(metaPath)) {
         usedMetadataCache = true;
-        parquetTableMetadata = Metadata.readBlockMeta(fs, metaPath.toString());
+        if (parquetTableMetadata == null) {
+          parquetTableMetadata = Metadata.readBlockMeta(fs, metaPath.toString());
+        }
       } else {
         parquetTableMetadata = Metadata.getParquetTableMetadata(fs, p.toString());
       }
@@ -508,9 +517,15 @@ private void init() throws IOException {
       if (fs.isDirectory(new Path(selectionRoot)) && fs.exists(metaPath)) {
         usedMetadataCache = true;
         if (fileSet != null) {
-          parquetTableMetadata = removeUnneededRowGroups(Metadata.readBlockMeta(fs, metaPath.toString()));
+          if (parquetTableMetadata == null) {
+            parquetTableMetadata = removeUnneededRowGroups(Metadata.readBlockMeta(fs, metaPath.toString()));
+          } else {
+            parquetTableMetadata = removeUnneededRowGroups(parquetTableMetadata);
+          }
         } else {
-          parquetTableMetadata = Metadata.readBlockMeta(fs, metaPath.toString());
+          if (parquetTableMetadata == null) {
+            parquetTableMetadata = Metadata.readBlockMeta(fs, metaPath.toString());
+          }
         }
       } else {
         fileStatuses = Lists.newArrayList();