Wegmans drops plans for a Triangle store. Here’s which one, and why it’s not happening
Plans for a Wegmans grocery store in Cary’s new Fenton commercial and residential development no longer are in the works.
The New York-based grocer canceled their plans for what would have been Cary’s second Wegmans, the company told The News & Observer Monday.
The company said another Wegmans store in Cary would be excluded from its future plans following the successful opening of three long-awaited Wegmans stores in the Triangle.
“Online shopping has grown tremendously, fueled in part by COVID-19, enabling us to serve customers in a much greater radius than was originally projected,” the company said in a statement to The N&O. “This has allowed us to plan our growth differently than we have in the past. As a result, we have decided not to move forward with the proposed Cary, NC location.”
There are currently Wegmans locations in Raleigh, west Cary and Chapel Hill — all of which opened in the last two years — with one soon to open Wake Forest. The Chapel Hill location opened Feb. 24.
Wegmans still has plans for a future store in Holly Springs at N.C. 55 and Ralph Stephens Road, according to its website.
The Wegmans in the eastern part of Cary, which was first announced in 2016, would have anchored the upcoming Fenton mixed-use center on Cary Towne Boulevard. Part of Fenton’s attraction was based on plans to feature the grocer on its site.
Hines, the Texas-based developer of Fenton, told The N&O Monday that the company remains optimistic about Fenton’s prospects and that another grocery tenant could take Wegmans’s spot.
“Given the immense interest in Fenton, where 80% of our retail space already is pre-leased, we are confident in completing the already strong mix of shopping, dining, entertainment and residential options,” Hines said in a statement Monday to The N&O.
“Fenton’s exciting ‘Live, Work, Play’ environment — combined with the recent news of Epic Games locating its headquarters across the street — is attracting significant interest from prospective tenants, including grocers.”
Hines said the company was able to replace an anchor tenant, Cinebistro dine-in movie theater, when it dropped out of the Fenton development with another theater chain, Paragon Theaters.
“We expect to do the same for the grocery component of this project,” according to the statement.
The 69-acre development is slated to include several restaurants and bars in addition to 355 units of luxury apartments when completed fully by 2022.
The news was first reported by the Triangle Business Journal.
