A to-be-named grocer is set to take over a former Food Lion space at Willow Place. (Mike Platania photos)
Two large retailers are set to join Richmond’s first Shake Shack on West Broad Street, but the identity of only one of them has been made public thus far.
HomeGoods and an unnamed grocery store have signed on as tenants at the Willow Place shopping center at 5420 W. Broad St., according to plans filed recently with Henrico County.
Sauer Properties owns the 77,000-square-foot shopping center and is planning to renovate and expand upon the existing development, which dates back 30 years. Earlier this year, Shake Shack inked a deal to put its first Richmond-area location at Willow Place and is scheduled to open there sometime in 2023.
Willow Place has been without a grocery anchor since 2017, when Food Lion closed. However, a building permit filed with Henrico last week shows that another grocer is headed back to the center. The exact user is not listed in the permit and Sauer Properties President Ashley Peace said she could not comment on any details regarding the grocery store.
HomeGoods, meanwhile, is set to take a space at the western end of Willow Place. Peace said Sauer Properties is excited to have that deal done and has been surprised at the volume of interest in the soon-to-be revamped shopping center.
The 30-year-old shopping center is set to get a major renovation.
“The interesting thing about this project is we were negotiating and working with these national retailers through the pandemic,” Peace said. “We had honestly more retailers than we could fit in the shopping center that were interested. I think we got the best fit.”
The Willow Place HomeGoods would be the fifth area location for the home decor chain, joining spots in Midlothian, Chester and Short Pump.
In addition to a fresh façade, Willow Place’s redevelopment will also include razing the Car Pool Car Wash building at 5512 W. Broad St. Peace said they’ve been in discussion with current tenants at the center for years and that many of those leases are scheduled to expire soon.
L.F. Jennings is the project’s general contractor and Freeman Morgan Architects is the designer. Thalhimer’s Connie Jordan Nielsen is handling leasing at the project.
Peace said they’re hoping to begin construction on the project by the end of the year, though work on the Shake Shack is already well underway.
A former Applebee’s has been razed and the site is now prepared for Shake Shack to go vertical.
“We finished the site work there. So, they’ll be starting their vertical building soon,” Peace said.
Willow Place is the second retail development in the region to go public in recent weeks with plans that include a mystery grocer. Atlanta-based SJC Ventures is planning a mixed-use project at 951 Alverser Drive in Chesterfield dubbed Midlothian Depot, where the firm has an unnamed grocery tenant lined up.
The size of the grocery spaces at both Willow Place and Midlothian Depot are 43,000 square feet, plans show, although it’s unclear whether it’ll be the same tenant. And though SJC has Whole Foods as a tenant in most of its grocery-anchored projects, it doesn’t look like Whole Foods is lined up for Midlothian Depot.
Plans for Midlothian Depot show that the project will be anchored by a “first-to-market grocery store.”
Whole Foods already operates two stores in the Richmond region: at Sauer Center near the Fan and West Broad Village in Short Pump.
Whole Foods is owned by Amazon, which also operates the Amazon Fresh chain of grocery stores and has yet to bring that brand to Richmond. An Amazon spokesperson said they do not comment on their future roadmap.
A to-be-named grocer is set to take over a former Food Lion space at Willow Place. (Mike Platania photos)
Two large retailers are set to join Richmond’s first Shake Shack on West Broad Street, but the identity of only one of them has been made public thus far.
HomeGoods and an unnamed grocery store have signed on as tenants at the Willow Place shopping center at 5420 W. Broad St., according to plans filed recently with Henrico County.
Sauer Properties owns the 77,000-square-foot shopping center and is planning to renovate and expand upon the existing development, which dates back 30 years. Earlier this year, Shake Shack inked a deal to put its first Richmond-area location at Willow Place and is scheduled to open there sometime in 2023.
Willow Place has been without a grocery anchor since 2017, when Food Lion closed. However, a building permit filed with Henrico last week shows that another grocer is headed back to the center. The exact user is not listed in the permit and Sauer Properties President Ashley Peace said she could not comment on any details regarding the grocery store.
HomeGoods, meanwhile, is set to take a space at the western end of Willow Place. Peace said Sauer Properties is excited to have that deal done and has been surprised at the volume of interest in the soon-to-be revamped shopping center.
The 30-year-old shopping center is set to get a major renovation.
“The interesting thing about this project is we were negotiating and working with these national retailers through the pandemic,” Peace said. “We had honestly more retailers than we could fit in the shopping center that were interested. I think we got the best fit.”
The Willow Place HomeGoods would be the fifth area location for the home decor chain, joining spots in Midlothian, Chester and Short Pump.
In addition to a fresh façade, Willow Place’s redevelopment will also include razing the Car Pool Car Wash building at 5512 W. Broad St. Peace said they’ve been in discussion with current tenants at the center for years and that many of those leases are scheduled to expire soon.
L.F. Jennings is the project’s general contractor and Freeman Morgan Architects is the designer. Thalhimer’s Connie Jordan Nielsen is handling leasing at the project.
Peace said they’re hoping to begin construction on the project by the end of the year, though work on the Shake Shack is already well underway.
A former Applebee’s has been razed and the site is now prepared for Shake Shack to go vertical.
“We finished the site work there. So, they’ll be starting their vertical building soon,” Peace said.
Willow Place is the second retail development in the region to go public in recent weeks with plans that include a mystery grocer. Atlanta-based SJC Ventures is planning a mixed-use project at 951 Alverser Drive in Chesterfield dubbed Midlothian Depot, where the firm has an unnamed grocery tenant lined up.
The size of the grocery spaces at both Willow Place and Midlothian Depot are 43,000 square feet, plans show, although it’s unclear whether it’ll be the same tenant. And though SJC has Whole Foods as a tenant in most of its grocery-anchored projects, it doesn’t look like Whole Foods is lined up for Midlothian Depot.
Plans for Midlothian Depot show that the project will be anchored by a “first-to-market grocery store.”
Whole Foods already operates two stores in the Richmond region: at Sauer Center near the Fan and West Broad Village in Short Pump.
Whole Foods is owned by Amazon, which also operates the Amazon Fresh chain of grocery stores and has yet to bring that brand to Richmond. An Amazon spokesperson said they do not comment on their future roadmap.
My guess is Sprouts for Midlothian grocer tenant, Whole Foods to Willow Place.
I don’t think whole foods would be willing to build so close to another. I think it’s more likely to be an Amazon Fresh like the article mentions. With the proximity to the Libbie Mill development, it’s a good location for redevelopment
Wow a new grocery retailer. Seriously the market here is so oversaturated with stores. Looking forward however to seeing who it is!
That not what they say in Manchester
It’s only over saturated with food retail in certain areas. Hello, Short Pump. I’ve been impressed with the Amazon Fresh in-house brands like Happy Belly, as well as the other brands they carry. An Amazon Fresh market would be welcome there.
With all of the people moving down from nova and the dc region for our cheaper cost of living we are going to need them. This place is already exploding with development. In a few years when the majority of these places are fully leased or sold we are going to have some real gridlock issues.
That’s what the Pulse is for
Amazon Fresh or Fresh Market would be amazing.
Fingers crossed for a Trader Joe’s at Willow Place!!!
The footprint is too big for a Trader Joe’s, unfortunately. Trader Joe’s run between 8k-15k sq ft and this space is 43k. The article also says it’s new to the market, which would mean it’s something not currently in the Richmond metro area.
Actually, it says the Midlothian Depot will be “first-to-market grocery store”, but only refers to the Willow Place grocer as unnamed and mystery…given that the Bon Air TJ’s is in an old Ukrop’s and architects, designers, and engineers are geniuses IMO…I’m going to continue keeping my fingers crossed. 😉
A new grocer .. this is going to be great, hopefully its a Harris Teeter, or Hanafords something to compete with Publix and Wegmans
Harris Teeter won’t be coming to Richmond because of Kroger; Hannaford left Richmond because they were bought by Food Lion.
Found out 4 weeks ago that the CARPOOL ON WEST BROAD would be merging with 9200 W BROAD ST on Dec 1 2022
They’re going to regret not putting residential here.