Normandy Park Towne Center owner Medina Fund Four, LLC, announced Tuesday (March 5) that a new grocery store – Normandy Park Market – has signed a long term lease for a new store to be built at the shopping center.
A new building – which will house the Normandy Park Market and one other tenant – will be approximately 30,000 square feet and is in final design stages. They are hoping to open prior to the Fall of 2013.
The new store will be owned and operated by grocery veteran Paul Wilcox.
“Paul Wilcox brings a vast amount of expertise and in-depth knowledge of operating fresh and organic grocery stores .” said Tom T. O’Keefe, Principal and CEO of The O’Keefe companies, owner and developer of Normandy Park Towne Center. “I’m excited to give the residents and my friends of Normandy Park the new type of grocery store they have been asking for since we bought the shopping center nearly two years ago.”
“I’m thrilled to be building and operating a new grocery store in Normandy Park,” Wilcox said. “But I’m even more excited about sharing my 26 plus years of grocery experience with my new friends and customers in the neighborhood,”
Wilcox added:
“My goal is to provide the community of Normandy Park and surrounding areas with a market that offers traditional elements of grocery shopping, additional efforts on new dynamic product selection, strong relationships with local fresh and organic suppliers and, most importantly, maintaining an affordable pricing structure to meet the needs of our everyday shopper. I am also pleased to announce that Unified Grocers will provide their support and resources as our primary wholesaler.”
The 100,000 plus square foot Normandy Park Towne Center is located in the heart of Normandy Park, north of Des Moines and south of Burien. The market area demographics are ideal for a mix of neighborhood retail tenants including Normandy Park Market, a competitively-priced but upscale grocery offering the best of produce, fresh meats and fish and all other grocery categories.
About O’Keefe companies
O’Keefe companies, a Seattle based company, was founded in 1986 by Tom T. O’Keefe. O’Keefe companies develops, acquires, and manages a diverse portfolio of commercial properties (retail, office, industrial & data centers) it owns. O’Keefe companies has developed or acquired nearly five million square feet of commercial real estate projects to date. www.odc2.com
About Normandy Park Market
Normandy Park Market, a Normandy Park based company, was founded by and is owned by Paul Wilcox, a twenty six (26) year veteran (Safeway, Larry’s Markets & Thriftway) in the retail Grocery Industry.
About Unified Grocers, Inc.
Founded in 1922, Unified Grocers is a retailer-owned wholesale grocery distributor that supplies independent retailers throughout the western United States. Unified and its subsidiaries, which generated approximately $3.8 billion in sales during fiscal 2012, offer independent retailers all the resources they need to compete in the supermarket industry.
Hmm, interesting. Hope they succeed and do well. It’s a tough location though. I wonder if Paul Wilcox owned and/or had interest in the Thriftway that was there previously (the old development that was there).
There was an XL Sooper grocery store there BEFORE Thriftway even. That lot has bad juju. Some friends and I have decided that all businesses fail in this location because the parking lot was built over an old Native American burial site… or something to this effect anyways
As an individual who has spent the last 16 years working in all aspects of Grocery Retail (from stores, distribution, and now manufacturing), Paul and Tom’s vision of what this store will be and look like is EXACTLY the direction Grocery Retail needs to go. People are tired of the large chains. From what I hear from Paul Wilcox, this will be an exciting and engaging store. Just what the people of Normandy Park and frankly every where else around the neighborhood need!!!
I am so looking forward to this. I normally do my everyday shopping at the Normandy Park QFC but for the last year they have been working on straying away from being an original and becoming mainstream. Which has lead me too driving to PCC in West Seattle, Natures Market in Kent or Whole Foods in Down town Seattle. This could not come soon enough!
WIll this be a represented store?? UFCW??
I know some folks (like my teen) looking for work… please update the community when applications are being accepted. Thanks!
Cool…bummer for QFC! I hate the parking lot at QFC so I look forward to the new store. I live closer to the new store anyway…We spend roughly $400 per month between QFC and Starbucks. Sad….
about time that center gets a store that can draw people of all types, not just a gym and many nail and tanning shops.
Yay!! While Seattle, the north end and east side of the city are being inundated with natural and organic grocery stores, the south remains untapped. Paul and Tom are brilliant. Besides being a neighborhood store for Normandy Park, I predict it will become a destination store for unincorporated Seattle, Burien, Des Moines, Redondo, Sea Tac and Tukwila.
Yes! It’s about time some forward thinking businesses came into the Park. Hopefully this will not only bring in outside consumers, but more innovative/current retail shops and restaurants.
Great! I wish them luck and look forward to shopping there. I heard this land was not ideal because of the dry cleaning business that used to be near XL Sooper. Apparently, a massive amount of dry cleaning chemicals was dumped there over the years. I assume when the property was remodeled, they cleaned it up, but who knows. I wish they would bring back that little hot dog stand that was in the middle of the parking lot. I forget the name of it.
The little stand in the middle was called “Dandy Dog”. When I was a kid back in the very early 80′s, it was a FotoMat.
This is fantastic news! It will make a great keystone store for the center, and certainly a boost to the few that are there now.
It’s going to be “painful” to have to wait all summer!
I agree with all the other positive comments. It is about time we have an anchor store at the Center; this is just what we have been wishing for. The Eastside is blessed with this type of grocery store, which we have missed. Thank you Paul and Tom!
If any of you are familiar with New Seasons in the Portland area, they are by far the absolute best markets around. They are true “community” grocery stores. It would be nice to see something to this effect go into this location to serve not only Normandy Park, but Burien and Des Moines and all the commuters who drive thru on their way home. I’m all about supporting local and disappointed that QFC is going out due to being able to walk there. Looking forward to the new store opening.
I hope this store will be mostly organic, gmo free items. We’ve tried for years to get PCC to locate down here. People have plenty of nearby QFCs to buy chemical filled and processed foods. If the new store is comparable to PCC or Whole Foods that will be our main store, no more trekking up to WSEA! If it’s like Met. Market, probably won’t shop there–as that store does not offer a wide range of organic foods and most of their products are overpriced when compared with PCC and WF.
I mostly shop at PCC because of their commitment to organics and humanly raise meats & poultry. I am hoping that this store will be as forward thinking. I will shop there if they offer these items. I believe in supporting local bussness.
I’m not sure what to expect. I was reading the website for his other store and it sounds like its not going to be going in the smacks direction as PCC. Below is copied from their website:
We also believe in our customer’s right to choose what they purchase and to provide the products that make them happy to shop with us by creating a ‘one-stop’ convenient shopping experience by carrying mainstream grocery brands. While these do not meet organic and natural standards, they are safe, quality products that have become leading brands loved by millions of people.
If I want mainstream grocery items I can go to QFC, my family eats like it gives a damn, so this market will have to work to get my busness. Organic, local, humane!
Great news! Good luck……if should do well especially with the QFC in Des Moines closing…