The Kroger site plan from Chesterfield County public records.
Kroger is pumping $25 million into another gargantuan store.
The Ohio-based grocer is under contract to buy 22.6 acres fronting Iron Bridge Road in Chesterfield County with plans to build a 113,000-square-foot Kroger Marketplace, a fuel center and a separate 7,800-square-foot retail building that it will look to lease.
It will be Kroger’s fourth Marketplace in the Richmond area and marks the first time the grocer is building its own adjoining ground-up development in the market.
“Richmond has definitely been an important focus for us over the last 10 years,” said Fenton Childers, Kroger’s head of real estate for Virginia. “We’ve done real well, and the customers there have been really supportive of our stores, so it has gotten more capital than other areas.”
Kroger plans to spend $25 million between land acquisition and development at the site, which sits on Iron Bridge Road between Greenyard and Court Yard roads. The land is owned by Deerfield Realty, and Kroger’s acquisition is expected to close in the fall.
The vast majority of Kroger’s investment will go toward building and outfitting the grocery store itself, which will include the grocery sections typical to any Kroger store as well as appliances and other home decor items carried in the larger Marketplace concepts.
The Kroger-anchored shopping center also includes two Iron Bridge Road-fronting outparcels that Kroger will look to sell or lease, Childers said.
Kroger has been rapidly expanding in the Richmond region in recent years and has pumped more than $150 million into building and renovating area stores since Martin’s gobbled up the Ukrop’s brand in 2009.
Kroger opened the first area Marketplace concept at Stonebridge in late 2012. Kroger also has a Marketplace under construction at Staples Mill and is expanding its Rutland Commons store into another of the gargantuan retail concepts. Each Marketplace store, Childers said, employs about 150 people.
A new Colonial Heights Kroger is also in the works, and the chain is expanding another location at Swift Creek shopping center. Including all of its stores in planning and under construction, there are 18 Krogers on the table for the Richmond area.
Kroger’s top local competitor also has expansion on its mind: Martin’s is building a store at Charter Colony Parkway and Midlothian Turnpike to replace a smaller store nearby and is eyeing the old Azalea Mall site for another new store.
A Martin’s at Gayton Crossing that sits back to back with a Kroger store closed in October.
Martin’s took over the top spot among Richmond grocery stores in 2013 with a 16.67 percent market share, according to trade publication Food World. Food Lion dropped from number one, coming in second with a 15.82 percent market share. Walmart and Kroger came in third and fourth, respectively.
Kroger plans to spend $25 million between land acquisition and development at the Iron Bridge site. (Photo by Burl Rolett)
Kroger representatives have said several times over the past year that their brand is gunning for the top spot in Richmond market share, but physical expansion is only one part of the company’s strategy, which has also included slashing prices in Richmond.
“It’s a combination of everything,” Childers said. “Kroger has been reducing prices over the last 10 years, and last year about this time we had a pretty massive price reduction program.”
The new Iron Bridge location made sense, Childers said, because it will sit in a high-traffic area where Kroger does not yet have a presence. Kroger’s nearest location to the Iron Bridge Road site is six miles away on Jefferson Davis Highway.
There’s at least one sign that the mere thought of a new Kroger-anchored retail strip is driving up demand for real estate in the surrounding area. Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer broker Jason Guillot said the Iron Bridge Road project is helping him reel in at least one new tenant at an office space he is marketing nearby.
“They are interested in that building because of the location and because there is going to be a retail center there,” Guillot said. “They would not be interested, they told us, if the Kroger was not going in.”
Kroger in January filed plans for the new development with the Chesterfield Planning Department. The necessary zoning is in place for the site, so planning staff will need only to sign off on the site plan. No further approval will be required from the county Board of Supervisors.
Kroger’s filings with the county were first reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The Kroger site plan from Chesterfield County public records.
Kroger is pumping $25 million into another gargantuan store.
The Ohio-based grocer is under contract to buy 22.6 acres fronting Iron Bridge Road in Chesterfield County with plans to build a 113,000-square-foot Kroger Marketplace, a fuel center and a separate 7,800-square-foot retail building that it will look to lease.
It will be Kroger’s fourth Marketplace in the Richmond area and marks the first time the grocer is building its own adjoining ground-up development in the market.
“Richmond has definitely been an important focus for us over the last 10 years,” said Fenton Childers, Kroger’s head of real estate for Virginia. “We’ve done real well, and the customers there have been really supportive of our stores, so it has gotten more capital than other areas.”
Kroger plans to spend $25 million between land acquisition and development at the site, which sits on Iron Bridge Road between Greenyard and Court Yard roads. The land is owned by Deerfield Realty, and Kroger’s acquisition is expected to close in the fall.
The vast majority of Kroger’s investment will go toward building and outfitting the grocery store itself, which will include the grocery sections typical to any Kroger store as well as appliances and other home decor items carried in the larger Marketplace concepts.
The Kroger-anchored shopping center also includes two Iron Bridge Road-fronting outparcels that Kroger will look to sell or lease, Childers said.
Kroger has been rapidly expanding in the Richmond region in recent years and has pumped more than $150 million into building and renovating area stores since Martin’s gobbled up the Ukrop’s brand in 2009.
Kroger opened the first area Marketplace concept at Stonebridge in late 2012. Kroger also has a Marketplace under construction at Staples Mill and is expanding its Rutland Commons store into another of the gargantuan retail concepts. Each Marketplace store, Childers said, employs about 150 people.
A new Colonial Heights Kroger is also in the works, and the chain is expanding another location at Swift Creek shopping center. Including all of its stores in planning and under construction, there are 18 Krogers on the table for the Richmond area.
Kroger’s top local competitor also has expansion on its mind: Martin’s is building a store at Charter Colony Parkway and Midlothian Turnpike to replace a smaller store nearby and is eyeing the old Azalea Mall site for another new store.
A Martin’s at Gayton Crossing that sits back to back with a Kroger store closed in October.
Martin’s took over the top spot among Richmond grocery stores in 2013 with a 16.67 percent market share, according to trade publication Food World. Food Lion dropped from number one, coming in second with a 15.82 percent market share. Walmart and Kroger came in third and fourth, respectively.
Kroger plans to spend $25 million between land acquisition and development at the Iron Bridge site. (Photo by Burl Rolett)
Kroger representatives have said several times over the past year that their brand is gunning for the top spot in Richmond market share, but physical expansion is only one part of the company’s strategy, which has also included slashing prices in Richmond.
“It’s a combination of everything,” Childers said. “Kroger has been reducing prices over the last 10 years, and last year about this time we had a pretty massive price reduction program.”
The new Iron Bridge location made sense, Childers said, because it will sit in a high-traffic area where Kroger does not yet have a presence. Kroger’s nearest location to the Iron Bridge Road site is six miles away on Jefferson Davis Highway.
There’s at least one sign that the mere thought of a new Kroger-anchored retail strip is driving up demand for real estate in the surrounding area. Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer broker Jason Guillot said the Iron Bridge Road project is helping him reel in at least one new tenant at an office space he is marketing nearby.
“They are interested in that building because of the location and because there is going to be a retail center there,” Guillot said. “They would not be interested, they told us, if the Kroger was not going in.”
Kroger in January filed plans for the new development with the Chesterfield Planning Department. The necessary zoning is in place for the site, so planning staff will need only to sign off on the site plan. No further approval will be required from the county Board of Supervisors.
Kroger’s filings with the county were first reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.