Discount grocer Aldi will add a sixth store in the Chattanooga market this fall with the opening of a 12,000-square-foot supermarket in the Hamilton Village shopping center on Gunbarrel Road.

Adli will fill the vacancy created last year when Baby's R Us closed its Chattanooga outlet after the bankruptcy of its parent, Toys R Us.

Troy Marshall, the Mount Juliet division vice president for Aldi who oversees the Chattanooga market, said the new store being built by Morgan Construction Co. should be ready to open by this fall and will employ 15 to 20 workers.

"We want the best sites that are closest to our shoppers and can support a high daily traffic volume," Marshall said about the new location. "As the demand for Aldi grows, so do our real estate options. Bottom line, we want to be conveniently located for our shoppers."

Two years ago, the German-based Aldi announced a $3.4 billion plan to ramp up U.S. expansion with a goal of 2,500 stores by the end of 2022,. With this growth, Aldi will become the third largest grocery store by count in the U.S. and serve more than 40 million customers per month, according to the company.

Marshall said a typical Aldi store "is much easier to navigate than a big-box store.

"Our layout is simple," he said. "We only have four or five aisles."

The Hamilton Village shopping center, which is also anchored by a Walmart superstore and includes 186,557 square feet, will lose one of its anchors in the next year when Dick's Sporting Goods moves its East Brainerd store into the former Sears store in Hamilton Place Mall.

Rob Murphy, a leasing agent for the Cincinnati-based Phillips, Edison & Co., which acquired Hamilton Village in 2014, said "there has been a lot of interest" among prospective tenants to fill the vacancy after Dick's moves out. But no leasing deals have yet been signed, he said.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.