California-based Grocery Outlet is planning to open a store at 9923 Hull Street Road, formerly occupied by gym YouFit, in the Oxbridge Square Shopping Center. (Jack Jacobs photo)
An out-of-town grocery store chain has claimed a former gym near the Courthouse Road and Hull Street Road intersection in Chesterfield for its first location in the Richmond region.
Grocery Outlet, a discount supermarket brand with more than 500 locations nationally, is planning to open a store at 9923 Hull Street Road in the Oxbridge Square Shopping Center, according to a building permit recently filed with the county.
The store would open in what’s currently a vacant, 16,000-square-foot space previously occupied by gym chain YouFit.
Grocery Outlet calls itself one of the country’s largest opportunistic buyers of grocery products. It buys up other companies’ excess inventory created by production overruns or changed packaging and sells those products at a discount in its stores.
Grocery Outlet is a publicly traded company based in California. Its stores sell meat, seafood and produce, and feature delis and beauty products. In addition to buying overstocked private-label and name-brand products, Grocery Outlet buys staples such as milk and eggs through more traditional sourcing. Earlier this year the company launched its own private-label brand called GO Brands.
Grocery Outlet and its subsidiaries have stores in 16 states. Earlier this year, the company announced it acquired the 40-store discount grocery chain United Grocery Outlet, which has a location in western Virginia.
The company also licenses its concept to independent operators.
The store planned to open at Oxbridge Square would appear to be the first Grocery Outlet company location in Virginia, according to an online store list.
It was unclear when the Chesterfield store is expected to open. Company spokespeople didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Other tenants at Oxbridge Square include Big Lots, Subway and an ABC store. Andrew Thacker, Nathan Shor and Adam Shor of S.L. Nusbaum handle leasing at the center.
YouFit closed its gym at Oxbridge Square last year. It opened at the center in 2015.
The new Grocery Outlet store would be within the Rockwood Special Focus Area, a 673-acre area around Rockwood Park that includes shopping centers at the intersection of Hull Street and Courthouse that county officials want to see redeveloped.
The land-use plan offers guidelines to turn the commercial centers into mixed-use developments and introduce more residential units to the area. Among the first such projects there is the redevelopment of nearby Rockwood Square shopping center, which has been largely torn down to make way for new townhomes. Another residential project is slated to rise on undeveloped land near Oxbridge Square.
They should’ve open in Manchester, that area has grocery stores everywhere.