7 Chesterfield locations still on the market - or the chopping block

MIDLOTHIAN — When the Martin’s Food Market in the Charter Colony retail center off Midlothian Turnpike opened in November 2014, the first Martin’s store in the region built from the ground up, and not merely converted from a former Ukrop's location, a Martin’s spokesman at the time said that the store would “showcase what Martin’s has to offer” and highlight their commitment to the region.

That commitment is ending less than two years later, with the Charter Colony Martin’s location one of nine Martin’s locations seeking to be bought or closed within a year, serving as perhaps an entirely different kind of showcase than Martin’s intended.

Netherlands-based Royal Ahold NV is the parent company of Carlisle, Pa.-based Giant-Martin's, and Delhaize Group of Belgium is the parent company of Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion, and as part of a $28 billion merger deal between the two European companies announced in February, it was agreed to close or sell 86 stores along the East Coast to avoid antitrust concerns, including all 19 local Martin’s stores.

For many shoppers, this is seen as one final act of betrayal by the company that bought beloved local grocery chain Ukrop’s Super Market in 2010, and in the view of many lifelong Ukrop’s shoppers, Martin's proceeded to run into the ground.

“Ukrop’s had been here 70 years, I’d shopped there all my life,” said one local resident. “Didn’t even take Martin’s a whole year before I started shopping at Kroger.”

There was certainly a decline in both profit and marketshare. Where Ukrop’s once was the unquestioned regional market leader for decades, less than five years later, Richmond has earned national attention for the number of competing grocery chains in the market and entering the region, the most recent challenger being Florida-based chain Publix, which announced earlier this month that it would take over 10 local Martin’s Food Markets currently for sale.

“It’s going to throw the Richmond market into even more accelerated activity,” says Jeff Metzger, publisher of trade publications Food World and Food Trade News, of the Publix deal. “It will go from ultra-competitive to off-the-chart competitive.”

What many overlooked with the talk of Publix entering the region was which Martin’s locations they’d be taking over. The soon-to-be Publix stores include one location in Colonial Heights and one in Chesterfield - the store in the Harbour Pointe Village shopping center in Midlothian - with the rest of the stores located in Henrico County or Richmond.

This means that of the nine remaining Martin’s locations without a buyer, seven are in Chesterfield County, a move that puzzles even Metzger.

“I thought it was a bit curious that they avoided the southside of Richmond,” Metzger says. “One of the best physical stores – probably the best in the whole lot – was the store that Martin’s reopened on Midlothian Pike a few years ago near Chesterfield Towne Center.”

This means the eventual fate of these remaining Martin’s locations are essentially in limbo for the next few months, and countless workers, shoppers and business owners along with them. Christopher Brand, a Martin’s spokesman, says that they will remain open for at least the rest of the year, in hopes they can find a buyer, and if they can’t, they will be closed.

“We will continue to operate the nine additional Martin's stores that are still being marketed, and we are unable to predict what the outcome of that process will be,” said Brand. “We do not expect to operate these stores beyond the next six to 12 months.”

This spells trouble not only for the hundreds of workers in Chesterfield who may be put out of work when Martin’s finally closes, but for the dozens of businesses located in shopping centers anchored by Martin’s grocery stores. Retail chains and department stores have struggled as a result of increased online shopping, so grocery stores have grown in demand as a safe anchor tenant for many shopping centers, according to Connie Jordan Nielsen, a senior vice president and retail specialist for Cushman & Wakefield/Thalhimer in Richmond.

“Although there are internet offerings for grocery products, it’s not as prevalent. The department stores, they’re being hit by that competition.“ said Nielsen. “When landlords start investing in redeveloping or building new stores, they want tenants that will be around for the long haul. Grocery stores are seen as reliable.”

This means that if these remaining Martin’s locations can’t find a buyer, many of the smaller businesses in the shopping centers they achor could also be put at risk, and some, such as the Charter Colony retail center, could very well go down with the ship.

Finding a buyer will be difficult given the amount of local competition near many of these locations - Kroger has made deep inroads into Chesterfield County over the past few years, and the Wegmans on Midlothian Turnpike still has its parking lots filled to capacity every day nearly two months after opening.

Martin’s had a tough time replacing Ukrop’s, and finding something to replace Martin’s may be tougher still.

In the Richmond region's much talked about grocery wars, Martin’s has been the largest to fall.

• Sean CW Korsgaard may be reached at skorsgaard@progress-index.com or 804-722-5172.