Fresh Market, Bed Bath & Beyond are Rehoboth-bound
Three stores have signed leases to occupy buildings in a Del. 1 commercial development quite close to Rehoboth Beach — one of them a first for Delaware, one a first for Sussex County and one a familiar sight.
The Fresh Market, Bed Bath & Beyond and Wawa are committed to opening stores in the Rehoboth Gateway shopping center, developer Jack Lingo Asset Management announced. The still-being-built commercial complex is located at Del. 1 and Country Club Road, just north of the Jungle Jim’s water park.
The property has been vacant for years, but is zoned for commercial use, and has had site plan permission from Sussex County to become a 65,000-square-foot shopping center since June 2014.
The Fresh Market’s location will be a first in Delaware for the gourmet supermarket chain, which is based in Greensboro, North Carolina, and has more than 100 stores in 27 states. A spokesman for the company said Wednesday it was not in a position to formally announce a pending Delaware location, but information on construction bid lead websites suggests building will begin in October.
Fresh Market Inc. CEO Craig Carlock said in a 2014 earnings call that the company’s stores compete with supermarkets like Whole Foods, but that its customers don’t view it simply through an organic, natural-food lens.
“There’s a couple others out there that are organic all natural retailers. People are coming to us for something different,” Carlock said, according to Triad Business Journal.
Bed Bath & Beyond has no stores in Sussex County, though it has two locations in northern Delaware and outposts in Ocean City and Salisbury, Maryland.
The Wawa slotted for Rehoboth Gateway, meanwhile, will be the third gas and convenience store for that brand in a four-mile stretch between Lewes and Rehoboth Beach. A Wawa public relations manager, Lori Bruce, confirmed the lease signing and said the company tentatively expects to open its location there in summer 2016.
JLAM in a news release said the $20 million project will “bring high quality shopping and dining opportunities to the millions of visitors to the Delaware beaches.” Two anchor stores and four pad sites will make up the layout of the shopping center, the JLAM statement said.
Some neighbors of the property said they worry about what will happen to traffic on an already-congested stretch of highway once the center is built.
“Putting that development there is going to exacerbate the traffic problem, like a lot of other developments,” said Claire Snyder-Hall, who lives near the property. “In general, we have unchecked development in this district.”
At the same time, Snyder-Hall said, a specialty grocery store close by is an appealing idea, and she noted the land was already zoned for commercial use. JLAM did not need to ask the county for any rezoning or land-use law exemptions to develop the parcel, which sits just outside Rehoboth Beach’s municipal border. “There’s really nothing anybody can do,” she said.
George Panarello, owner of All Wheels Bike and Scooter Shop a quarter-mile away from Rehoboth Gateway, said the land’s development was inevitable.
“There is the talk around town — do we need that big box store right there in Rehoboth?” Panarello said. “Do I want to see it, as an ‘old person’ of Rehoboth? No. But it’s America, man. If it’s your property, go ahead.”
Contact James Fisher at (302) 983-6772, on Twitter @JamesFisherTNJ or jfisher@delawareonline.com.