DALLAS-The Dallas/Fort Worth area added more new residents last year than any other metropolitan area in the country, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. For grocers, that population growth translates into opportunity: more mouths to feed.
The Metroplex attracted nearly 147,000 people during a 12-month period starting in July 2008. Within North Texas, Rockwall, Collin and Denton counties are the fastest growing, along with cities on the western side of the Metroplex. Recent leasing and development activity for national grocery chains illustrates the phenomenal growth, according to Robert Young, managing director of brokerage services for The Weitzman Group.
In Collin County, for example, Whole Foods will open in The Village at Fairview in the second half of this year. And in Frisco, Kroger opened its first Kroger Marketplace in January. The 123,000-square-foot concept combines groceries and general merchandise departments.
Upscale grocer Tom Thumb also plans a Frisco location that is scheduled to open in 2011. The grocery chain also has plans for 100,000-square-foot store at The Shops at Stone Creek, a community project at FM 552 and North Goliad in Rockwall.
And in Denton, Wal-Mart, D/FW’s largest grocery chain, will open this fall in Rayzor Ranch, a master-planned, mixed-use community. Sam’s Club also will open at the site.
Young tells GlobeSt. that grocery chains, both traditional and speciality, have backfilled a large percentage of big box space left vacant by Circuit City and Linens n' Things. Even some of the former Albertston's stores have been absorbed, either by new grocer or by Albertson's returning to the market and re-leasing the space stores.
"We've been lucky because most of these boxes haven't sat empty for very long," Young says, pointing to a former Whole Foods Market space at the corner of Preston Road and Forest Lane that was leased to Natural Grocers, a Colorado-based natural foods and vitamin store, and CVS.
In Fort Worth, for example, Sprouts Farmers Market grocery is backfilling 30,000 square feet that formerly housed Albertson's, and Kroger purchased a former Albertson's on University Drive and Berry Street to open the first Fresh Fare store in Texas.
In fact, Kroger is expanding aggressively in the Metroplex, leasing 123,000 square feet at Fort Worth’s Alliance Town Center and planning additional stores in Mansfield (Fort Worth area) and Little Elm (Dallas area) between now and 2011.
Similarly, discount grocer Aldi has entered the Metroplex market with several locations in backfilled or redeveloped space.
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