North metro folks will soon have more grocery shopping options.
Four new grocery stores will open in New Hope, Brooklyn Park, and Blaine in the next year.
With Rainbow Foods' parent company, Roundys, having exited the Twin Cities, other chains are either entering the market or beefing up their presence. In the north metro, the new stores run the gamut from discount chain Aldi, where shoppers deposit a quarter to use a cart, to Iowa-based Hy-vee, which is including full-service restaurants in its new Twin Cities stores:
• Hy-Vee will open its first Twin Cities store in September in New Hope. It will be the only grocery store within city limits.
• Hy-Vee will also open a store in Brooklyn Park. Construction starts this fall, with opening expected in the summer of 2016.
• A 182,000-square-foot Super Wal-Mart with a full line of groceries will open on the east side of Blaine in the coming months.
• Aldi, the German discount grocery chain, will open a store in east Blaine across the street from the new Super Wal-Mart.
In New Hope, director of community development Jeff Sargent said residents have been clamoring for a new grocery store since the last full-service store closed.
"The only grocery options residents have right now is in outlying suburbs. They absolutely wanted to see a grocery store come back into the city," Sargent said. "When this option came up, the residents were all over it. We've had a lot of positive feedback from residents."
The Hy-vee on Xylon Avenue will be 90,000 square feet, including the restaurant, liquor store and pharmacy. North Memorial is also planning to open a clinic on the site, and the city is planning several streetscape improvements in the area, including a bike and walking path, streetlights and park benches shaded by arbors.
In July, the Brooklyn Park City Council approved construction of a 96,000-square-foot Hy-vee at Zane and 93rd. It will include a full-service restaurant, liquor store, pharmacy, coffee shop and gas station.
The contractor is expected to start construction this fall and Hy-vee hopes to open in 2016.
In Brooklyn Park, Hy-vee joins a burgeoning array of grocery options, including Cub Foods, Super Wal-Mart, Festival Foods, Aldi, Asian grocer Dragon Star Supermarket and several smaller ethnic groceries.
The Hy-vee site along Hwy. 610 was originally zoned for office space. City leaders agreed to allow a grocery after developer Ryan Cos. approached them, said Brooklyn Park Planning Director Cindy Sherman.
"We have community members who are very excited about Hy-vee coming. We have others who think it will hurt our existing stores," Sherman said. "We don't base our decision on the market. We let the market take care of itself."
The new Super Wal-Mart just off Interstate 35W and Lexington Avenue in Blaine is slated to open in the coming months. It will replace a smaller Wal-Mart store a mile away.
The discount grocer Aldi will open a store in east Blaine in December. The store will be built in front of Fleet Farm at 10220 Lexington Av. The newcomers join a cadre of other stores, including Cub Foods, SuperTarget and a second Super Wal-Mart on the city's west side.
At 10,000 square feet, Aldi stores are a fraction of the size of conventional groceries.
"We take a simple, cost-effective approach to grocery shopping that fundamentally saves shoppers on their grocery bills at the checkout," said Aldi representative Grant Walters.
It's one of eight new Aldi locations opening in Minnesota this year. There are currently 40 Aldi stores in the state.
Shannon Prather • 612-673-4804
