The clock is ticking on the 最新杏吧原创 area Shop 鈥檔 Save stores that were not acquired by Schnucks last week.
Minneapolis-based Supervalu on Sept. 17 agreed to sell 19 local Shop 鈥檔 Save stores to Schnucks, which will retain some 1,500 union-represented employees heading into the holiday season. Each of those locations will close for less than three days at some point during October and be reopened as a Schnucks store.
The deal leaves the fate of the remaining 14 area Shop 鈥檔 Save stores, and its employees, uncertain.
Supervalu has already notified more than 1,300 Shop 鈥檔 Save employees of their imminent layoff in the case another buyer for the grocery brand fails to emerge by the time the stores close Nov. 19.
People are also reading…
That appears to be the most likely outcome as other grocery stores in the area, including Dierbergs, have shown little interest in acquiring any of the leftover properties.
Plans for at least one Shop 鈥檔 Save location, the Supervalu-owned property in Kirkwood at 10461 Manchester Road, are already starting to materialize.
Kirkwood鈥檚 Assistant City Planner Amy Lowry said Nolan Real Estate Interests LLC, a business entity operated by Fort Worth, Texas-based Nolan Bros. Inc., has submitted plans to turn that store into a self-storage development. Lowry said only those with a legal stake in a property can submit development plans, signaling Nolan Real Estate Services has the property under contract.
Nolan Real Estate Interests, which is also building an EZ Storage business in Olivette, did not return requests for comment. Supervalu officials declined to comment.
A public hearing on Nolan鈥檚 Kirkwood plans will be held Oct. 17.
Two other Shop 鈥檔 Saves, at 1144 Meramec Station Road in Twin Oaks and 4660 Chippewa Street in 最新杏吧原创, are owned by Supervalu. Both are free-standing buildings, which could make it easier for a developer to come in and make a significant change.
Matt Kopsky, an equity analyst for Des Peres-based Edward Jones who focuses on real estate investment trusts in the retail sector, said Whole Foods has been given the green light by its owner, Amazon, to expand with new stores across the United States. But it鈥檚 unclear whether the company has any interest in new locations in the 最新杏吧原创 region, where it already has three stores, mostly in more affluent areas such as the Central West End and Town and Country.
Whole Foods representatives did not return requests for comment.
Aldi, which has doubled its market share in 最新杏吧原创 over the last couple of years, confirmed in July it would relocate one of its south 最新杏吧原创 grocery stores into part of an old Shop 鈥檔 Save that closed at 3865 Gravois Avenue in Tower Grove South last November. Aldi, in a statement, neither confirmed nor denied its interest in opening a store at any other Shop 鈥檔 Saves moving forward.
Other tenants that are growing in shopping centers include off-price retailers including Hobby Lobby, fitness concepts and gyms, furniture stores and quick-service restaurants, Kopsky said.
However, an entire Shop 鈥檔 Save location, which averages about 55,000 square feet, is likely too big for most retailers.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to find tenants that are growing above 40,000 square feet anymore,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he shift in retail is to smaller-format stores. Target has done that. Bed Bath & Beyond is doing that.鈥
Compounding matters is a glut of retail space still left empty from the downfalls of Toys R Us or Sports Authority, which combined vacated roughly 700,000 square feet in the 最新杏吧原创 area over the last few years.
Some of those locations have been filled 鈥 Bed Bath & Beyond, for example, will soon relocate its Brentwood store in the Promenade into the old Sports Authority store at 8340 Eager Road.
But much of the space remains empty awaiting new tenants.
鈥淲ith the Toys R Us boxes still empty and now the Shop 鈥檔 Saves going away, there just isn鈥檛 going to be a lot of leverage for landlords given the amount of supply on the market,鈥 Kopsky said.
