Homesense furniture store to open in Sea Turtle Marketplace on Hilton Head. Is Aldi next?
Homesense, a national retailer that specializes in furniture and home decor, will fill the space left vacant when Stein Mart closed in Hilton Head Island’s Sea Turtle Marketplace.
Darrell Palasciano, a real estate broker with the Charlotte-based The Providence Group, said construction started in November, and Homesense is expected to open in the spring.
Homesense is a brand owned by TJX, which also owns T.J. Maxx, Marshall’s, Sierra and HomeGoods.
“It’s a newer brand,” Palasciano said. “We were excited when they indicated they had interest. ... They obviously like this market for their brands.”
There is already a HomeGoods and a T.J. Maxx on Hilton Head and a Marshall’s just over the bridge in the area around Tanger 2 outlet mall.
The Hilton Head Homesense will be the retailer’s first location in South Carolina. The store will be just over 29,000 square feet and take up the entire former Stein Mart space, Palasciano said.
How does Homesense differ from Home Goods, located in Northridge Plaza across U.S. 278 from Sea Turtle Marketplace?
A 2022 article on the House Digest website explains that Homesense sells more furniture, such as full-sized couches and dining room sets. Homesense also sells hardware such as doorknobs and pedestal sinks, has an extensive lighting section and features rugs, wallpaper, office supplies and coffee table books. Alternately, while HomeGoods does sell some furniture and rugs, it focuses more on decor items, accessories, cookware and dishware, along with bed and bath products.
Sea Turtle Marketplace
The anchor location at Sea Turtle Marketplace has been vacant since 2020, when Stein Mart filed Chapter 11 reorganization and went out of business.
However, now Sea Turtle Marketplace appears to be making a comeback.
Construction of the shopping center at the site of the aging and dated Pineland Station Mall stalled several times between 2015 and 2018. In May 2019, the center’s owner filed for bankruptcy. During the time the center was owned by the lender, the anchor spots sat vacant.
Current owner Greenberg Gibbons purchased the 100,000-square-foot shopping center in 2022.
Then, earlier this year, Golf Galaxy opened as anchor on the opposite end of the shopping center from the future Homesense.
Only two smaller spaces remain unoccupied in Sea Turtle Marketplace, one between West Marine and PetSmart and another across the parking lot in a row with Jersey Mike’s, Orange Theory and local Italian restaurant Gusto Ristorante, among other businesses.
Palasciano said he hopes to have tenants for those open spaces early next year.
What about Aldi?
On Aug. 7, the agenda for a Town of Hilton Head pre-application meeting included discussion about a new Aldi location proposed at Sea Turtle Marketplace.
The pre-application meeting is a voluntary part of Hilton Head’s development and design review process. At the meetings, town staff will answer a developer’s questions and offer feedback about a project’s plans, any possible zoning issues or the timeline, for example.
Andrew Davis, spokesperson for the Town of Hilton Head, confirmed Aldi’s attendance at the pre-application meeting but said no formal application had been submitted by the retailer.
Palasciano said he could not speak in detail about further plans for the shopping center, though an announcement could be made in the next couple of months if a deal is finalized.
“What I can confirm is that we are negotiating with a national retailer to build on the three-acre parcel adjacent to Golf Galaxy,” he said. “I’m not in a position to confirm or deny what retailer it is.”
