Posts
-------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, Jul. 02, 2011
Whole Foods coming to Columbia
Other name-brand retailers likely to follow Whole Foods
A new Whole Foods slated for the foot of Devine Street is a game-changer that could help usher in other unique retailers to the Midlands, officials said Friday.
“We should look at this like a multiplier effect,” said Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin. “Whole Foods is really the gold standard. It’s a sign that Columbia’s growing.
“I’m feeling pretty bullish right now.”
“We should look at this like a multiplier effect,” said Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin. “Whole Foods is really the gold standard. It’s a sign that Columbia’s growing.
“I’m feeling pretty bullish right now.”
Columbia shoppers have long complained the Capital City does not have many of the national specialty retailers that are in Greenville and Charleston.
But last month, Mast General Store opened on Main Street, and Friday, officials announced Whole Foods will open next year in Cross Hill Market, at the intersection of Cross Hill Road, Devine Street and Fort Jackson Boulevard.
Edens & Avant, a major East Coast shopping-center developer based in Columbia, will spend $23 million to redevelop Cross Hill, now vacant. Whole Foods is slated to open in October 2012, accompanied by a dozen or more other new stores in the shopping center.
“The recession is over, and the retailers have been looking – and finding – locations,” said Ron Anderson, vice president of research and technology for NAI Avant. “They (Mast and Whole Foods) both have been looking for a long time, and the opportunity to strike landed.”
Other name-brand retailers could be close behind.
Trader Joe’s and Costco, two stores missing from Midlands retail landscape, are looking for sites, commercial retail experts said.
“Everybody wants high-income, highly educated consumers,” Anderson said, “which we have, but we don’t have in large clusters. For them to come into the market, they’ve got to really find the right spot.”
Whole Foods started looking for that spot in Columbia more than eight years ago, said Scott Allshouse, regional president for the Austin, Texas,-based organic grocery chain.
The grocer finally found the right spot – close to a neighborhood and accessible to folks from Fort Jackson and the University of South Carolina – in Cross Hill’s boarded-up Kroger, closed since 2007.
Edens & Avant chief executive Terry Brown said his company hopes to announce by the end of the year the names of a dozen or more retailers that will join Whole Foods in the redeveloped Cross Hills.
Whole Foods will anchor the 74,000-square-foot shopping center. Edens & Avant will add on to both sides of the current former Kroger building and build outparcels as well as a walking path to the adjacent Hampton Trace neighborhood.
The announcement was a game-changer for neighbor Kathy Galloway, who said she had planned to move when her son graduated from high school.
“I was going to be out of here,” said Galloway, whose house is in the neighborhood that backs up to the boarded-up shopping center. “This is such an eyesore.”
But as developers unfurled a Whole Foods banner to announce the new retailer, Galloway – standing in a crowd of clapping and cheering neighborhood residents, and city and store officials – said she will stay.
“I just feel like it’s going to be a huge boost for us,” she said. “Our property value is going up significantly.”
Galloway also is thrilled she will be able to buy her seafood and produce locally. The traveling saleswoman packs a cooler every time she goes to Charleston or Greenville for work so she can buy scallops, shrimp, salmon and other goodies from Whole Foods outlets in those cities. “I come home with a bag of Granny Smith apples to get my son through the week,” she said.
Whole Foods has made its reputation as an upscale retailer selling natural and organic foods. Competitor Earth Fare already operates on Columbia grocery. Other grocers – including the nearby upstate Fresh Market grocery – also are adding to their natural, organic offerings.
Construction is expected to start in January. The shopping center is expected to create 180 full-time and 120 part-time retail jobs, as well as 100 temporary construction-related jobs.
That too is welcome news. S.C. unemployment is 10 percent as the state struggles to recover from a harsh recession.
But last month, Mast General Store opened on Main Street, and Friday, officials announced Whole Foods will open next year in Cross Hill Market, at the intersection of Cross Hill Road, Devine Street and Fort Jackson Boulevard.
Edens & Avant, a major East Coast shopping-center developer based in Columbia, will spend $23 million to redevelop Cross Hill, now vacant. Whole Foods is slated to open in October 2012, accompanied by a dozen or more other new stores in the shopping center.
“The recession is over, and the retailers have been looking – and finding – locations,” said Ron Anderson, vice president of research and technology for NAI Avant. “They (Mast and Whole Foods) both have been looking for a long time, and the opportunity to strike landed.”
Other name-brand retailers could be close behind.
Trader Joe’s and Costco, two stores missing from Midlands retail landscape, are looking for sites, commercial retail experts said.
“Everybody wants high-income, highly educated consumers,” Anderson said, “which we have, but we don’t have in large clusters. For them to come into the market, they’ve got to really find the right spot.”
Whole Foods started looking for that spot in Columbia more than eight years ago, said Scott Allshouse, regional president for the Austin, Texas,-based organic grocery chain.
The grocer finally found the right spot – close to a neighborhood and accessible to folks from Fort Jackson and the University of South Carolina – in Cross Hill’s boarded-up Kroger, closed since 2007.
Edens & Avant chief executive Terry Brown said his company hopes to announce by the end of the year the names of a dozen or more retailers that will join Whole Foods in the redeveloped Cross Hills.
Whole Foods will anchor the 74,000-square-foot shopping center. Edens & Avant will add on to both sides of the current former Kroger building and build outparcels as well as a walking path to the adjacent Hampton Trace neighborhood.
The announcement was a game-changer for neighbor Kathy Galloway, who said she had planned to move when her son graduated from high school.
“I was going to be out of here,” said Galloway, whose house is in the neighborhood that backs up to the boarded-up shopping center. “This is such an eyesore.”
But as developers unfurled a Whole Foods banner to announce the new retailer, Galloway – standing in a crowd of clapping and cheering neighborhood residents, and city and store officials – said she will stay.
“I just feel like it’s going to be a huge boost for us,” she said. “Our property value is going up significantly.”
Galloway also is thrilled she will be able to buy her seafood and produce locally. The traveling saleswoman packs a cooler every time she goes to Charleston or Greenville for work so she can buy scallops, shrimp, salmon and other goodies from Whole Foods outlets in those cities. “I come home with a bag of Granny Smith apples to get my son through the week,” she said.
Whole Foods has made its reputation as an upscale retailer selling natural and organic foods. Competitor Earth Fare already operates on Columbia grocery. Other grocers – including the nearby upstate Fresh Market grocery – also are adding to their natural, organic offerings.
Construction is expected to start in January. The shopping center is expected to create 180 full-time and 120 part-time retail jobs, as well as 100 temporary construction-related jobs.
That too is welcome news. S.C. unemployment is 10 percent as the state struggles to recover from a harsh recession.
No comments:
Post a Comment