The second Amazon Fresh grocery concept in the region seems destined for the former Best Buy property in Rochester Hills.
In this space on Monday, I reported that a site plan in Shelby Township shows what appears to be an Amazon Fresh store envisioned for the 36,500-square-foot former Gander Outdoors store on Hall Road at the northest corner of Schoenherr.
I drew that conclusion based on visuals in the plan which show things like paneling, corrugated metal, sconces and slats below the signage practically identical to some Amazon Fresh stores that have popped up around the country, primarily in California and Illinois.
Two days later, a tipster pointed me in the direction of the old Best Buy, located at 2651 S. Rochester Road in the Hampton Village Centre south of downtown Rochester.
Lo and behold, on Friday afternoon I received construction drawings — which only identify a 40,600-square-foot grocery store going into the space — through a Freedom of Information Act request that appear to show a store very similar to the one planned for Shelby Township.
The parking lots for the stores both have similar features as well, including 10 dedicated pickup parking spots and a pair of electric vehicle parking spots.
Presto! It seems we have found the second planned Amazon Fresh in metro Detroit.
And I suspect more will keep popping up. After all, for Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), which has a market capitalization of $1.54 trillion, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to just do a store or two in a metropolitan region with some 4.3 million people, especially when you're trying to cut into the grocery market share that Aldi and Walmart enjoy.
Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Amazon has opened 11 of its grocery stores and has at least 28 more in the works around the country.
The article cites an anonymous source as saying that the company used the density of Amazon Prime members per ZIP code to help target locations for Amazon Fresh.
Hampton Village Centre is owned by New York City-based shopping center real estate investment trust Brixmor Property Group Inc (NYSE: BRX).
A spokesperson for the company said Wednesday afternoon that there is a lease for a grocer but declined to identify it. The spokesperson said construction is expected to start in the second quarter. A spokesperson for Amazon earlier this week when I asked about the Shelby Township store that the company does not comment on rumors or speculation. On Saturday, a spokesperson said the same thing about the Rochester Hills location.
The Rochester Hills shopping plaza counts among its tenants Target Corp., Kohl's Corp., Designer Brands Inc. (DSW) and TJX Cos. (T.J. Maxx). Best Buy closed shortly after the Christmas holiday shopping season.
According to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service, the property is 130,300 square feet with 42,200 square feet available for lease with an estimated rent of $22 per square foot per year to $27 per square foot per year, not including utilities and taxes.
Site-plan descriptions refer to the project as a converting "the existing Best Buy space to a new, national grocer."
Bloomberg's report said that the first Amazon Fresh location opened in Los Angeles last year with the most recent opening a week ago.
Bloomberg described the Amazon Fresh stores as having "the polished concrete floors and industrial vibe of an upscale grocer," plus "digital price tags and smart 'Dash' shopping carts that tally up smaller purchases as customers browse the aisles."
Stay tuned. I expect more of these will be coming.
March 27, 2021 at 11:00PM
https://www.crainsdetroit.com/voices-kirk-pinho/construction-plans-rochester-hills-thicken-plot-potential-amazon-fresh-grocery
Construction plans in Rochester Hills thicken plot on potential Amazon Fresh grocery stores - Crain's Detroit Business
https://news.google.com/search?q=fresh&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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