Discount retailers working on side-by-side Rochester stores

Jeff Kiger, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·2 min read

Oct. 26—ROCHESTER — Rochester shoppers will have new choices in the future, once a pair of national discount retailers — Ross Dress For Less and

Burlington

— open inside a long-empty southeast big box store.

Following up a filing in September, a building permit filed last week laid out the plan as "complete interior remodel" to divide the 50,000-square-foot former

Dick's Sporting Goods store

at 4603 Maine Ave. SE into two tenant spaces.

The recent permit detailed plans for a 25,447-square-foot Ross Dress For Less store in one half of the building in the Shoppes on Maine area. The cost of the construction was estimated at $990,000 in the building permit.

The California-based Ross, which describes itself as "the largest off-price apparel and home fashion chain in the United States," recently opened

its first Minnesota store in St. Cloud.

It has more than 1,700 stores in the U.S. For comparison, competitor TJ Maxx has more than 1,300.

Connie Kao, group vice president of investor and media relations at Ross Stores, confirmed that the company plans to open a Rochester store, its second in Minnesota.

"We believe Minnesota provides a great opportunity to grow Ross' brand presence nationally," she wrote. "Overall, when selecting a specific site, we look for good demographics — strong densities of Ross target customer as well as strong, healthy economic fundamentals that provides room for long-term growth."

There is no estimated timeline for when the store might open. Construction has not yet started.

The other half of the former Dick's building will be occupied by a new 25,495-square-foot, in-line building Burlington store.

The New Jersey-based retailer, formerly known as the Burlington Coat Factory, has 12 stores in the Twin Cities area, but none elsewhere in Minnesota. Burlington sells "fashion-focused merchandise" including clothing for men, women and children as well as toys, baby products, and beauty items.

That building has been empty since

Dick's closed

in early 2017.

The sporting goods chain opened the Rochester store

in 2007 in the then-new Shoppes on Maine commercial area. It opened soon after Target, the retail center's anchor tenant.

Excluding the Target store, that commercial complex that also houses

Old Navy

and

Petsmart

is owned by Berengaria Development and Minneapolis-based Hempel Real Estate. Berengaria is a portfolio company of Marcus Investments. Marcus Investments is the real estate investment arm of the Marcus family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that also owns the nearby Marcus Cinema.

Berengaria and Hempel purchased the center in 2022 under the name of BMA Maine LLC for $12 million.