Trader Joe’s will open a 15,000-square-foot store on Lower Greenville, on the site of the old Arcadia nightclub, between Bell and Sears.
The store will open at the end of 2012, selling groceries, beer and wine, according to a DMN report this morning.
The city recently spent $1.3 million to spruce up that portion of Greenville with street improvements, wider sidewalks, benches and bike racks. The work was completed this month.
Madison Partners, the real estate firm that owns the property, previously had plans for a food-truck park on the site. The group told the DMN that a smaller version of the food-truck park is still planned, but it will be worked around the Trader Joe’s site plans. Trader Joe’s also will open stores in Plano and Fort Worth next year.
A word to the wise: As the Trader Joe’s hype goes into full gear this year, other retailers are bound to be talking with Madison about locating nearby. Just as Madison’s plans for the food-truck park were primarily aimed at “warehousing” their land until a good tenant (like Trader Joe’s) came along, it’s likely that another strong lease or two could ultimately kill the food-truck park idea entirely, replacing it instead with permanent retail.
If you’re interested in additional background, we talked about Trader Joe’s, among other “coveted corporations”, in a January 2011 cover story detailing the process used by national chains in determining where to locate their stores.
