The ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) met in the area recently, and the fact that there is a lot of interest from retailers to expand in the DC area could prove beneficial for Rhode Island Ave NE. In regards to replacing the Safeway that is closing, here is an excerpt from the article from the Washington Business Journal about two major grocery store chains that are interested in DC:
Retailers looking to break into the region included two grocery stores — Greensboro, N.C.-based The Fresh Market and Edison, N.J.-based Wakefern Food Corp., which operates the ShopRite and PriceRite chains.
ShopRite is a regional grocer that operates in 6 states in the northeast (MD, DE, CT, NY, NJ, and PA). From my travels in these areas, they seem to be a clean and up-standing store. Owned by Wakefern Food Corporation, I have the personal contact information for the real estate division, Joe Gilchrist, who oversees this area. I will update this post once I speak with him.
The Fresh Market looks to be like a Whole Foods-type of stores. I have not been in any stores, but they already have stores in Maryland. Their criteria for a store is that they are +/-20,000 sqft, have +/-150,000 residents within 5 miles, and “Preference for convenient in-fill locations in established neighborhoods in close proximity to our target customer”.
If anyone is interested in either store, I will post in the near future how you can contact the right person to discuss this further. Here is the article from the Washington Business Journal that I referenced earlier.
