Patrons of the former Shoppers location in Northeast Baltimore will soon have a new spot to buy their groceries.
Compare Foods, a grocery store chain with 100 locations throughout six states, is setting up shop in the Alameda Marketplace with plans to open in March 2020.
Even if the entire State Center development project doesn’t move ahead as originally planned, some area residents say they would like to see one part of it, the historic Fifth Regiment Armory, be converted into a grocery store.
Grocers are among the many businesspeople who see opportunity in the new development sprouting up around downtown Baltimore. But even as deals in a pair of separate spaces on Fleet St. and N. Charles St. supposedly develop, officials haven’t been willing to put names to these potential grocery suitors.
The Rotunda Facebook page – yes, there is a Rotunda Facebook page – has announced that the new grocery store at the Rotunda shopping center in Hampden will be MOM’s Organic Market. The 15,000 sq. ft. store, which is the model size for MOM’s, will replace the 33,000 sq. ft. store that the Giant left last year for their new digs on nearby 41st Street.
Hekemian & Company, the New Jersey based owners and redevelopers of the Rotunda, have planned an official groundbreaking ceremony at the mall today, Wednesday, September 18th, at 11am. Baltimore Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is scheduled to attend. The new plan for the mall development calls for 152,000 square feet of retail space, 379 apartments, and 140,000 square feet of office space, as well as a central plaza for outdoor events and festivals. Construction is expected to be complete by the end of 2015. As reported last month in Baltimore Fishbowl, Bozzuto Construction Company will be the general contractor for the $100,000 million project.
So why MOM’s? According to Hekemian Senior Vice-President of Development Chris Bell, speaking to the Baltimore Sun, one of the other leading candidates was Graul’s, which was perceived as “not that different than the Giant, and not as unique as MOM’s”. The other candidate, Fresh Market, “did not appear to do the volume of business that MOM’s does”. “MOM’s brings something uniquely new to the (city) market”, continued Bell. “It’s much more like a Trader Joes. Their stores typically do a very high volume. The customers come back and back and back”. Pointing to the increasing numbers of young people in the Hampden area, he suggested that as people become more conscious of what they eat, MOM’s would be well able to accommodate that need.
Hekemian & Co., owner of the Rotunda mall in Hampden, has named the Greenbelt, Md.-based Bozzuto Group as general contractor for the Rotunda’s upcoming redevelopment. According to local land use consultant Al Barry, who works for Hekemian, the choice of Bozzuto and the “imminent” selection of a grocery store will open the way for construction to begin as soon as mid-September, 2013.
In the past few years, the Bozzuto Group has successfully completed a number of major construction projects in Baltimore, including the Fitzgerald, a luxury apartment building adjacent to the Lyric Opera House and the Union Wharf in Fells Point, a high-end mixed-used development on Wolfe Street.
Plans for the redesign of the Rotunda (approved in February of this year) include 382 residential units, 182,000 sq. ft. of retail space and 153,00 sq. ft. of office space, as well as parking for 1,100. Target date for completion has been given as summer 2015.
I really didn’t think that Wegmans would be denied their liquor store. The audacity displayed by the grocery giant — building the inhouse liquor store before being granted a license, putting the “separate business” in the name of Christopher O’Donnell, husband of Wegmans President Colleen Wegman — led me to believe it was a done deal. But the Howard County Alcohol Beverage Hearing Board voted unanimously on Monday to deny the license.
We know Columbians are excited — even fanatical — about their new Wegmans. But is that irrational popularity enough to bend state law, zoning rules, and the Howard County General Plan to allow the grocery behemoth to sell booze?
Wegmans certainly seems confident that they’ll get a pass from the Alcohol Beverage Hearing Board — confident enough to have already built the second floor liquor store with “shelving in place and separate loading docks.”
So why should they expect to have their license request granted? Well, you see, it’s not that Wegmans wants to sell liquor themselves. No, no, of course not. They just want to rent out space on the second floor to an independently operating store, 90 percent of which happens to be owned by Christopher O’Donnell, husband of Wegmans’ President Colleen Wegman. And even he is really just “a venture capitalist.” Yeah, that’s the ticket. The real man in charge is the 10 percent owner, Ellicott City lawyer Michael Smith. He’s the one who applied for the liquor license. Everything’s totally above board per state law.
If I lived in Columbia I’d consider evacuating until the Wegmans frenzy blows over. The family-owned grocery chain that inspires cult-like devotion among its customers is opening a new location in Columbia, Maryland on Sunday.
According to a story in The Sun, Wegmans is expecting “a crowd of thousands” to be standing around the store “several hours” before it opens at 7 a.m. Management has even met with Howard County police to plan for traffic. (You should be proud of me for making it through those sentences without any exclamation points.)
Expected among the THOUSANDS in attendance, are the Women of Wegmans, six superfans who “attend every Wegmans grand opening in every state.” I wish I was kidding about that, but I’m not.
Yes, I know — they’ve got a great organic selection. Yes, it’s so clean in there. Oh, and the prepared foods! Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Don’t worry, citizens of Columbia, Cynthia Glover, who’s been working on Wegmans’s marketing of the new location predicts that the frenzy will die down “in a month.”
If you happened to have a particular fondness for Superfresh, then we’ve got some sad news for you: all their area grocery stores are closed, and several — including the one in Hampden — are about to get a speedy makeover/takeover from a Canadian company that no one seems to know much about.
Here’s what people have pieced together: Fresh & Green’s, owned by a natural foods services team from Toronto, took over the Charles St. Superfresh last week; a new one will colonize the former Superfresh in Hampden, on 41st St., by the end of this week. The changeover is happening as quickly as possible — a mere 36 hours in the case of the downtown store — because the new owners don’t want to disrupt the routine of their regular shoppers.
While Superfresh was pretty much a generic grocery store, Hampdenites are hoping for something a little different from the new store. Fresh & Green’s will apparently offer a “hybrid” store that combines all the standard grocery store offerings with expanded natural foods options, fresh prepared foods, and possibly even an in-store restaurant.
According to the company’s CEO, Matt Williams, “We’re pretty experienced in natural and organic grocery, and we feel that these eight stores would all benefit from having not just a token appearance of natural and organic but a strong presence. We see a couple of the stores being entirely natural and organic.”
As for all those Superfresh employees? They’ll have to reapply for new jobs at the re-vamped stores, and no one’s guaranteeing them employment.
