Fresh Market opening pushed back

DeSoto County grocery patrons eager for the arrival of the Memphis metro area’s fourth Fresh Market will have to wait awhile.

The empty shell of the planned store at Goodman and Pleasant Hill roads has spurred questions over the anticipated retailer’s arrival date, and Olive Branch planning officials say an ownership change caused the delay. As of now, according to Olive Branch Planning Director Jason Gambone, it looks like it will be summer 2018 before the store is open for business.

The Fresh Market, a Greensboro, North Carolina-based supermarket chain with more than 170 locations nationwide, agreed in March 2016 to be acquired by New York City-based Apollo, an equity firm. Apollo agreed to pay more than $1.3 billion for The Fresh Market, which also was courted by the Memphis area’s dominant grocer, Cincinnatibased Kroger Co.

Gambone said that as a result of the acquisition, pending locations were put on hold because the new owners “have different plans for the interior of stores already in progress.”

“The deal is still on,” Gambone said, “but (the delay) is essentially just related to the takeover and changes on the interior.”

Gambone said his information came from the project’s developer, Texasbased Seitz Group, which could not be reached for comment. The phone number listed for Seitz is no longer in service.

The planned Fresh Market will anchor the east end of a retail strip center at Goodman and Pleasant Hill that includes an Academy Sports, Hobby Lobby and Five Below. The center also includes several smaller, unfinished retail bays.

The Fresh Market site is an empty shell with the outer facade and parking lot complete. Inside, however, nothing has been done. There’s still a dirt floor.

The center, at the southeast corner of Goodman and Pleasant Hill across from Target, is part of a rapidly developing retail corridor. Assuming the grocery shell is completed as a Fresh Market, it would join two Fresh Market locations in Memphis — on White Station and on Union — and one in Germantown, on Poplar.

With the addition of The Fresh Market, Apollo added to its holdings that also include Hostess and Chuck E. Cheese restaurants.