Thomas Gounley

TGOUNLEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM

Specialty grocery store chain The Fresh Market has removed a reference on its website to plans for a Springfield location, which it originally said would be opening this fall.

The company implied in a statement to the News-Leader this week that it's still interested in the store, but didn't provide a timeline for its arrival.

"The development of the shopping center has not progressed as quickly as we had originally planned, so we have prioritized other projects in our pipeline, and have not finitely determined when we might open," the company said Thursday.

North Carolina-based The Fresh Market announced in October that it had leased a portion of Glenstone Marketplace, a shopping center under development on Glenstone Avenue south of Erie Street. As of this week, however, the site was still a bare lot.

Glenstone Marketplace Developer Brad Thessing did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The Fresh Market no longer lists Springfield in the "announced leases" category on its website, although an archived version of the page captured March 10 shows the city there.

The decision to focus on non-Springfield projects isn't the only change that The Fresh Market has made in recent months.

In late April, the company said it no longer planned to move forward with plans for a store in the Kansas City area. Then, in early May, The Fresh Market announced that it was closing all of its stores in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Texas. The Fresh Market only had one operating store in Missouri, a year-old location in Creve Coeur.

The company's early May announcement made no mention of changes regarding planned stores, like the one in Springfield. The changes were announced days after private equity firm Apollo Global Management completed its acquisition of the grocery store chain.

The Fresh Market has described itself as “a specialty grocery retailer focused on providing high-quality products in a unique and inviting atmosphere with a high level of customer service.” The company, which was founded in 1982, says on its website that it operates 176 stores in 24 states.