Ellwood Thompson’s to expand
Ellwood Thompson's Local Market is taking over the recently vacated Blockbuster space next to its store near Carytown.
The retailer also is close to finalizing a deal to open a store in a Washington suburb.
Construction on the 4,800 square feet once used by Blockbuster will begin soon and should be completed in the spring, said Paige Bishop, an Ellwood Thompson's spokeswoman.
The additional space will be used as a community meeting room. It also allows Ellwood Thompson's to enlarge the dining area inside the store and expand its wine and beer selection, she said.
The grocer is at Ellwood Avenue and Thompson Street.
The additional space, which became available when bankrupt Blockbuster closed the store this spring, will enable the grocer to move its bakery there from its current space in a strip center across Ellwood Avenue. Ellwood Thompson's bakes its goods there each day and then sends them across the street, Bishop said.
The grocer has gone through several expansions since opening its current store in 1993. It has grown from 5,000 square feet to about 15,000 square feet now. The additional space will bump it up to almost 20,000 square feet.
The store's addition will ratchet up the competition in an area where three grocers operate within several blocks of one another. One of those grocers, Kroger, is nearing completion of a major remodel of its Cary Street store.
The Fresh Market is expected to open next year at Carytown Place in the former Verizon building.
The natural-food grocer also is close to signing a lease to open in Montgomery County, Md., at Rockville Town Square, a community with restaurants, shops and apartments.
"We hope to finalize it in the next 60 days," Bishop said.
The project is Ellwood Thompson's second attempt to open a store in the Washington market.
It signed a lease to go into the DC USA project in the District's Columbia Heights area in 2008, but backed out of the project in January, blaming the economic downturn of the past couple of years.
The 15,000-square-foot store in Maryland could give Ellwood Thompson's a solid built-in clientele because 94,000 people with an average household income of $114,862 live within 3 miles of the development, according the developers.
Bishop said the wine and beer license has been approved by Montgomery County and that final details on the deal are being worked out.
Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.
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