Urban-format supermarkets becoming a trend

DC region and elsewhere

Vilas Bhuchar, Dec 11, 09.

As demographics change and the housing meltdown continues, more supermarket operators are choosing to build urban-format stores to fit transit-oriented, walkable neighborhoods in the District of Columbia region and elsewhere, according to New Urban News.

The story notes that parking is reduced and placed below urban-format stores, and one or two sides of these stores are sometimes lined with shops to better accommodate pedestrians.

Craig Muckle, manager of public affairs and government relations for the Eastern Division of Safeway, one of North America’s largest supermarket chains according to the story, is quoted as saying, “We are definitely focusing on stores in our urban core and will not be building stores in urban areas that are growth dependent.”

The story adds that the housing meltdown has played a major role in this trend as “supermarket operators can no longer build in the distant suburbs in the expectation that thousands of housing units will soon spring up to support the store.”  On the other hand, urban residential developments and the affluent residents that move into them are creating new markets in cities. 

Jim Voelzke, a principal with MV+A Architects in Bethesda, MD, is quoted as saying, “I see a continuation of this trend.  I have yet to hear of a single store that has not been successful and able to meet reasonable expectations.”

The story concludes with examples of recent urban-format stores developed in the DC area:

• A 55,000 square foot Safeway opened in 2007 at Cityvista, which also includes 685 rental units and another 75,000 square feet of retail. The grocery store space is 28 feet high, which allows for two levels of liner retail and restaurants — placed on two sides of the building. The third side has the main entrance and street windows that display the produce section. The fourth side has the loading dock. The parking is located below the store.

• Cityvista is located in the NoMa (north of Massachusetts) neighborhood, which has seen construction of 8,000 apartments in recent years, according to Wikipedia. It’s an example of how new urban development can drive supermarket location. Torti Gallas designed this store with Michael Marshall Architecture.

• A 42,000 square foot Whole Foods Market is situated under three stories of condominiums — 116 total — and a 10,000 square foot fitness center in Alexandria, Virginia. The building at Duke Street and Holland Lane sits on the northeast corner of the 80-acre, high-density, new urban Carlyle development — and near the Metro. MV+A’s design, with sloped roofs and pilasters, responds to the historic architecture of the city as well as recent buildings — some modernist — in Carlyle, Voelzke notes. Three levels of parking, accessed by a rear alley, are below the store, which was completed in 2006.

• A 55,000 square foot Giant was completed in 2007 near the Columbia Heights Metro station in DC, a revitalizing neighborhood that won a CNU Charter Award in 2009. The store, with two levels of parking above, fills out a block that includes the reuse of the historic Tivoli Theater building and another new retail/office building. The supermarket and mixed-use building were designed by MV+A with materials and massing to complement the theater. The north face of the block is lined with three-story townhouses, reflecting the existing housing across Monroe Street.

Full story

(Photo credit: New Urban News)

 

 

 

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