Wegmans details timeline for opening its first Charlotte store, dishes on what’s next

Wegmans Food Markets is making strides to open its first Charlotte store with construction expected to begin within a couple of months.

Around Jan. 1, the Rochester, N.Y.-based grocer plans to start demolition of four office buildings and extensive land preparation at the Ballantyne property on North Community House Road, Wegmans’ vice president of real estate Dan Aken told The Charlotte Observer on Friday.

Wegmans received its land disturbance permit last month from the city of Charlotte.

By the end of the year, Wegmans expects to receive its building permit approval and finalize the purchase of the 14 acres on Ballantyne’s east side from Northwood Investors. Wegmans is part of Northwood Investors’ over $1 billion Ballantyne Reimagined project.

Construction on the building will begin by late summer 2025, Aken said, for a fall 2026 debut.

“It takes about 12 months from the time we put a shovel in the ground to get our doors open,” he said.

Wegmans would not disclose how much its investing in the Charlotte store, but Aken said it is significant at “10s of millions of dollars.”

Wegmans confirmed plans for Charlotte’s first store in April after years of speculation and anticipation by many who relocated from the Northeast and others around town. Aken said then that Wegmans had received hundreds of requests for a store in the Charlotte area.

More about the Wegmans store in Charlotte

The 110,000-square-foot supermarket will be one of Wegmans’ larger stores, Aken said. It will be about 5,000-square-feet larger than any of North Carolina’s four Raleigh-Durham stores with a similar layout. Wegmans opened its first store in North Carolina four years ago in the Raleigh area.

One notable difference, Aken said, is there will be outdoor patio seating for the Wegman’s market cafe. The building’s size also will give Wegmans flexibility to offer expanded sections, for example produce or the restaurant.

The Charlotte Wegmans will have similar offerings to other stores, which is a mix of Upstate New York and local products.

The store will hire up to 500 full- and part-time employees. Typically, Aken said, the majority of hiring begins about six months from opening.

More Wegmans stores in the Charlotte market

Wegmans already is looking to expand in the Charlotte market with three to five stores, Aken said. Wegmans is considering at a couple dozen locations and is “intrigued” by SouthPark and Huntersville and Cornelius, he said.

“We’re typically trying not to put those closer than 10 miles from one another,” Aken said.

Wegmans will face heated competition from over 760 grocery stores including expansions by Publix and Lowes Foods. It’s a lucrative market that saw record sales of $10.2 billion last year, according to industry sales tracking firm Chain Store Guide. Discount giant Walmart has dominated the field for five years, followed by Matthews-based grocer Harris Teeter and Salisbury-based Food Lion.

Charlotte has “significant food enthusiasm,” Aken said, “and typically in those types of markets, we do pretty well.”

The 108-year-old, family-owned supermarket chain has about 5,400 employees and 110 stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Delaware, and Washington, D.C.

This story was originally published November 8, 2024 at 3:07 PM with the headline "Wegmans details timeline for opening its first Charlotte store, dishes on what’s next."