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Trader Joe's in Greensboro


cityboi

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While foes of Trader Joe's in the Friendly Ave neighborhood say there is no guarantee Trader Joe's is even the tenant in the Regency development, city councilman Zack Matheny said Trader Joe's will be the anchor tenant. The developer and its attorneys are confident they will win the battle to construct the shopping center with a Trader Joe's and other stores next to the upscale Shops at Friendly Center. The neighborhood isn't against Trader Joe's coming to Greensboro, They are against more commercial development creeping closer to their neighborhood. Once complete there will be three grocery stores clustered together. The largest Harris Teeter in the United States, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. According to people within Trader Joe's, the company had been looking to put stores in both Greensboro and Winston-Salem for a while now.

http://www.news-reco...on_trader_joe_s

unrelated news.....an International grocery store will open in Greensboro.

Li Ming’s Global Mart is set to open in a 52,000-square-foot space at the Greensboro South Shopping Center, which is located at the corner of High Point and South Holden roads. Raleigh and Durham have a store.

http://www.bizjourna...greensboro.html

Edited by cityboi
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GREENSBORO, N.C. —The Triad Business Journal reported Tuesday that Trader Joe's is no longer interested in building a store in Greensboro.

 

Trader Joe's, which has a location off Stratford Road in Winston-Salem, was reportedly set to be the anchor store of a development near Greensboro's Friendly Center.

In an email to WXII, Trader Joe's PR Director Alison Mochizuki said: "We are no longer interested in the proposed site in Greensboro, and we are not interested in any other sites in Greensboro at this time.  Instead we are focusing our attention on sites in other cities around the country."

Click here to read The Business Journal's complete report.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. —The Triad Business Journal reported Tuesday that Trader Joe's is no longer interested in building a store in Greensboro.

 

Trader Joe's, which has a location off Stratford Road in Winston-Salem, was reportedly set to be the anchor store of a development near Greensboro's Friendly Center.

In an email to WXII, Trader Joe's PR Director Alison Mochizuki said: "We are no longer interested in the proposed site in Greensboro, and we are not interested in any other sites in Greensboro at this time.  Instead we are focusing our attention on sites in other cities around the country."

Click here to read The Business Journal's complete report.

 

 

 

 "We are no longer interested in the proposed site in Greensboro, and we are not interested in any other sites in Greensboro at this time.'    :blink:   Wow!   

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Way to go Greensboro! The backwards thinking for a very vocal few has run yet another retail business off. While I could care less about Trader Joe's as a place to shop, it is a shame to see something like this happen. I can't blame Trader Joe's for telling Greensboro to take a hike.

 

As much as I love living in Greensboro, and have seen great progress made in the 26 years I've been here, there are a lot of backwards thinking people here. I think it is amazing what we have accomplished with so much resistance. If it were not for a fairly large influx of people for other parts of the U.S. much of the Triad would be a Third World country.

 

On the other hand, I blame Trader Joe's for being so stubborn in having to have the store build in a residential neighborhood in w. Friendly. Why not another location? How about land where Golden Gate Shopping Center is now? Everything has left there! Plenty of land! Also, in the middle of the New and Old Irving Park money. Decaying buildings  and unused land are all over Greensboro. A little smart planning by the city would help rebuild these old, tired neighborhoods with new retail. Greensboro and most larger cities suffer from poor planning and urban sprawl.

 

Update: Saturday March 8th...I just read in the N & R that rezoning efforts will move forward even if Trader Joe's does not come to Greensboro. LOL! Hard to believe that the people against this were dumb enough to believe that they had won after TJ pulled out. So, for all of this, Greensboro looks like a city of idiots, we lost Trader Joe's, and rezoning of the property will move forward. Since TJ is not coming, maybe a Walgreens,  CVS, or how about a nice 20 pump gas station?

Edited by luvdowntowngso
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Either the developers, or the media coverage of this persistent blown up hype did not play it smart before getting Trader Joes involved to even consider making a decision.  Either way...a lot of us are tired of hearing and reading about it.  Put the baby to bed.

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Trader Joe's was a Trojan Horse regarding both this re-zoning request and the one about a year ago. This is a drugstore (most probably Walgreens) project and is the reason these various developers are working so hard to bring it about.

The following statement by Mary Kotis, a GSO developer, has this situation nailed pretty well. I’d speculate that the Trader Joe’s deal was window dressing all along for the drug store deal. Walgreen’s can pay a significant premium (sometimes up to $3-4 million) for a high profile corner, while TJ tends to get cheap deals as the draw/anchor for a shopping center. Given the developer’s costs in this deal, I’m guessing rents would have been north of $40/sf, while Trader Joe’s is used to rents in the low 20′s in a market like Greensboro. I would expect the developer to move forward with the rezoning, because it’s not about Trader Joe’s. The big question is if there will still be the same outpouring of support for a drug store with a drive thru.

TJ's was enticed to be cover for the drugstore. Of course this site is one that they would have interest in. But not at any cost. It is almost like a quid pro quo situation. TJ's would get space here at what they want to spend in rent and Walgreens would pick up a majority of the costs to get this site. TJ sites in other cities are not in very close proximity to the most upscale shopping centers in the respective markets. The one in Raleigh is in a non-descript strip center at Wake Forest Road @ the Beltline. And is not surrounded by any especially upscale retail.

The thing that GSO residents should be more concerned with is why was there all that taxpayer money spent on comprehensive land planning documents that determined upfront what the most beneficial use for each tract of land in the city to only have it completely negated by the prospect of a trendy retailer coming in. Which by the way is a violation of zoning laws in that it is not the user but the use that should be the only determining factor in approval of an existing zoning change. This property was designated residential as part of the comprehensive land use process. That is when it should have been identified as a possibility of commercial development. What is even more appalling are the people who were on the planning board and apparently do not see the error of their ways in regards to my points above.

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Honestly, I'm sick and tired of the city overturning their plans because some developer decided to try their luck and buy property that wasn't zoned correctly and then act all indignant when the residents who often times helped design the zoning plan get upset about it. If Trader Joe's really wants to open a location in Greensboro there are about a dozen other locations they could realistically look at without pissing off the neighborhood. Greensboro does not need another shopping center.

 

If this is some way of putting a Walgreens there I really wouldn't be surprised. Another developer tried to build a Walgreens a few years back on a piece of residential property at Cornwallis and Lawndale that had been mistakenly rezoned when the city revised the zoning system a decade ago, and it led to a similar fight that the residents seem to have won.

Edited by DCB
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While I think the NIMBYs ultimately led to Trader Joes passing up on Greensboro again I have to agree with you DCB in that Trader Joes could have chosen another location in Greensboro. The store is so popular and attracts people from such great distances, it could have been built in just about anywhere in Greensboro. A store with such low food prices doesnt have to be built in an area of town with wealthy demographics. Hell it could be built in downtown Greensboro and would still be just as successful because its a destination grocery store, although it might drive Deep Roots out of business.

Edited by cityboi
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It turns out that local leaders were trying to persuade Trader Joe's to locate downtown in the Union Square mixed-use university development. Who knows, Maybe Greensboro losing the chance this time is a blessing in disguise for a better location in the future.

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