11 Grocery-Anchored Developments Underway In D.C.

The developments that have the greatest impact on a neighborhood are often those that bring a new grocery store, offering a new option for residents to make their regular food shopping trips. 

Building grocery stores as part of low-rise shopping centers with surface parking lots appears to be a thing of the past in the D.C. Metro area, as developers are now building grocery stores into mixed-use developments with hundreds of apartments that bring a consistent stream of demand. 

The D.C. region is lined with new grocery-anchored developments that will bring retailers such as Wegmans, Whole Foods, Aldi and Trader Joe's to their respective neighborhoods. From Rockville to Shaw to Southeast D.C. to Alexandria, Bisnow found 11 grocery-anchored developments underway in the D.C. area. 

City Ridge

• Grocery Store: Wegmans
• Location: 3900 Wisconsin Ave. NW
• Developer: Roadside Development

Wegmans has grown its presence in the D.C. suburbs, but the popular grocer had eluded the District until 2017. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced at the 2017 ICSC conference Wegmans signed on at Roadside's redevelopment of the former Fannie Mae headquarters on Wisconsin Avenue. 

The grocery store plans to open in 2022 in an 80K SF space in the redeveloped Fannie Mae building. It is part of the 10-acre, $640M City Ridge development that will include 652 residential units, 153K SF of retail and 60K SF of office across eight new buildings, plus another 100K SF in the redeveloped building that could be office or hotel. 

Carlyle Crossing

• Grocery Store: Wegmans
• Location: Alexandria's Hoffman Town Center
• Developer: Stonebridge

Wegmans is also opening a new store in a major mixed-use development in Alexandria. The grocer signed on in 2017 for an 84K SF store at Stonebridge's 1M SF mixed-use project at Hoffman Town Center. 

The developer broke ground last month on the project, branded as Carlyle Crossing. The $400M, 1M SF project will include over 750 residential units and 210K SF of retail. The Wegmans will open on the second floor of the project to allow a mix of smaller retailers to open in the street-level space. The project is expected to deliver in fall 2021. 

Twinbrook Quarter

• Grocery Store: Wegmans
• Location: 1500-1616 Rockville Pike
• Developer: B.F. Saul

A massive project in Rockville could continue the Wegmans wave across the region, but it has faced some roadblocks. The grocer signed on in April 2018 to open at B.F. Saul's Twinbrook Quarter, a 2.8M SF development next to the Twinbrook Metro station. The project is planned to include 11 mixed-use buildings with up to 1,865 apartments, 431K SF of office and 473K SF of retail. 

The project has not yet broken ground, and Wegmans doesn't appear to want to wait much longer. The project was at risk of being caught in Montgomery County's building moratorium when a B.F. Saul representative in December told Rockville officials Wegmans would break the lease if the project didn't break ground by Q1 2020, Rockville Nights reported. The Rockville City Council then approved the project in April, exempting it from the building moratorium and potentially paving the way for it to break ground before the reported deadline. 

The Wren

• Grocery Store: Whole Foods
• Location: 965 Florida Ave. NW
• Developer: MRP Realty, JBG Smith, Ellis Development

The Shaw neighborhood will soon welcome a Whole Foods in the mixed-use development at 965 Florida Ave. NW. The organic grocer signed on in 2015 for 40K SF and the development team broke ground in November 2017 on the project, branded as The Wren. 

The 433-unit development will include 132 affordable units, as it was one of the first properties D.C. sold to developers under new disposition rules that require 30% of units to be set aside as affordable. The development is expected to deliver in Q4 2020, according to JBG Smith's Q2 investor filing released Tuesday. 

South Alex

• Grocery Store: Aldi
• Location: Alexandria section of Fairfax County
• Developer: Combined Properties

German discount grocer Aldi in Janary 2018 signed on for 20K SF at Combined Properties' Redevelopment of the former Penn Daw Plaza shoping Center in Fairfax County. 

The developer broke ground on the project in December and expects to complete it in 2021. It is slated to include 400 apartments, 41 townhouses and 24K SF of retail in addition to the grocery store. 

Combined is working on another grocery-anchored project in Fairfax, where it signed Giant for 54K SF in August 2017. That project, branded as Scout on the Circle, will also include 400 apartments. 

Art Place at Fort Totten

• Grocery Store: Aldi
• Location: Intersection of South Dakota Avenue and Galloway Street NE
• Developer: Cafritz Foundation

Aldi signed onto another D.C. mixed-use project in February, leasing 25K SF near the Fort Totten Metro station. The grocer will anchor the second phase of Cafritz's Art Place at Fort Totten development. 

Phase 1 of the 2M SF development delivered in 2017 with a 520-unit apartment building. The second phase is planned to include 250 apartments, 30 live-work units for artists, 87K SF of restaurants and a food hall. The development will also feature two museums, a 75K SF interactive art museum and a 25K SF  children's museum. 

Skyland Town Center

• Grocery Store: Lidl
• Location: Intersection of Alabama Avenue and Good Hope Road SE
• Developer: Rappaport and WC Smith

Another German grocer, Lidl, will open D.C.'s first new supermarket east of the Anacostia River in over a decade. The grocer signed on in May for 29K SF at the Skyland Town Center development. 

The 18-acre development broke ground in early 2018 prior to landing the grocery store, though it had signed CVS. The development team had previously reached an agreement with Walmart to anchor the project, but the retailer backed out of the deal in 2016. The full Skyland Town Center development is planned to include up to 500 units and 135K SF of retail. 

Centro Arlington

• Grocery Store: Harris Teeter
• Location: Intersection of Columbia Pike and South George Mason Drive
• Developer: Orr Partners

A 366-unit, Harris Teeter-anchored project is nearing completion on Columbia Pike. The Centro Arlington development began pre-leasing in April, and it also brought in WhyHotel to open a pop-up hotel during the lease-up phase. 

Orr Partners Chairman David Orr told Bisnow last year he expects the Harris Teeter to open this September. It will occupy a 50K SF space, and the project will have 20K SF of additional retail, including an Orangetheory Fitness. 

600 North Glebe Road

• Grocery Store: Harris Teeter
• Location: 600 North Glebe Road
• Developer: Southeastern

The Harris Teeter in Ballston, which was the brand's first location in Virginia when it opened in 1998, is slated to be rebuilt as part of a mixed-use development. Georgia-based Southeastern is moving the project through the Arlington planning process in partnership with Harris Teeter, which owns its property. 

The plans originally called for 685 units, but the development team has since increased its proposal to 735 units. It would feaure a flagship, 71K SF Harris Teeter with five stories of apartments above it, plus another eight-story apartment building. 

Glover House

• Grocery Store: Trader Joe's 
• Location: 2101 Wisconsin Ave. NW 
• Developer: JBG Smith

Trader Joe's opened its new Glover Park store July 17, bringing a new grocery store to the neighborhood where Whole Foods closed its store in 2017 and has yet to reopen it.  

The 15K SF Trader Joe's is part of JBG Smith's 225-unit Glover House project. The apartments are expected to open later this year. 

The Waycroft

• Grocery Store: Target
• Location: 750 North Glebe Road
• Developer: Saul Centers

While Target is more than a grocery store, many customers frequent the retailer for their regular food shopping. Target signed on in May 2017 for a 42K SF store at Saul Centers' Ballston project. 

The development, branded as The Waycroft, is expected to deliver in Q1 2020. It   features 491 apartments and 20K SF of additional retail, including a Silver Diner.