Design changes approved next to Germantown Trader Joe’s
Design changes for a retail space adjacent to the anticipated Germantown Trader Joe’s have won approval, signaling continuing progress on a development that real estate experts hint could be a positive for the city’s housing.
The panel Tuesday evening approved a request from 2130 Exeter Road Holdings LLC to change the exterior facade appearance of the center space in the old Kroger building. Trader Joe’s is expected to occupy the northernmost spot in the building, with the unnamed tenant seeking modifications in the middle and room for a third tenant at the building’s south end.
The application considered Tuesday sought approval for use of white bricks and accompanying white trim on the storefront, along with painted white metal panels and painted white canopies. A drawing shows blue sign lettering, though the application did not include a request for signs.
After lengthy discussion over the shade of white proposed by the applicant, board members approved the request for a shade similar to that on the Apple store in Saddle Creek.
There was still no hint of who the potential Trader Joe’s neighbor is. The application was filed under the name of the entity developing the site, 2130 Exeter Holdings LLC.
Interest in the potential tenant is spillover from the longtime interest in Trader Joe’s, whose arrival finally became official with the January issuance of a building permit naming the California-based grocery chain, followed by February consideration by the DRC of a sign package for the company. The full DRC has yet to act on the sign package, which is expected to be back before the board in April.
The anticipation of Trader Joe’s arrival in Germantown and the Memphis metro market isn’t without justification, real estate experts say. In fact, given the store’s proximity to the Whole Foods that opened in 2015 at 7825 Poplar, experts say Germantown may have hit the gold mine.
An analysis by Zillow, an online real estate database company, found that homes grow in value faster if they are closer to two particular food stores: Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods.
The analysis found that between 1997 and 2014, homes located near the two grocery chains were consistently worth more than the median U.S. home. The study found that by the end of 2014, homes within a mile of either store were worth more than twice as much as the median home in the rest of the country.
“Like Starbucks, the stores have become an amenity in their own right,” Zillow Group Chief Economist Stan Hum-