Discount grocer Lidl buys land for a store near Chesterfield Town Center

Published January 4, 2016 by Paula C. Squires

   Lidl, a Germany-based discount supermarket, has purchased a 4.8-acre parcel near Chesterfield Town Center for what will be one of its first retail stores in the Richmond region.

According to Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, the company paid $3.2 million for land at 1301 Mall Drive. The site is down the street from where another discount grocer, Aldi, is building a store.

David M. Smith, a senior vice president with Thalhimer, who handled sale negotiations on behalf of the seller, The Daniel Group Inc., said the sale has been in the works for nearly two years.

“This site will be one of the first Lidl locations to be opened in the Richmond market,” he said. The store will be about 34,000 square feet.

The acquisition is part of a larger plan to roll out the brand along the East Coast. “They have a strategic plan that involves grand openings of multiple stores up and down the East Coast from Delaware down to North Carolina if not farther south,” Smith said. The store openings are expected in 2017-2018.

In addition to Aldi, Costco, a discounter retailer with grocery products, also is located on Mall Drive, close to what is one of Chesterfield’s largest shopping centers.
Land prices near Chesterfield Towne Center are at a premium, Smith said, “with upward pressure on the pricing in terms of the scarcity.”

The deal continues to expand Lidl’s presence in Virginia. The company already had begun construction on a new regional headquarters and distribution center in Spotsylvania County. That $125 million facility is expected to create 200 jobs and open no later than 2018.

Lidl, one of the largest retailers in the world, operates nearly 10,000 stores in 26 countries throughout Europe. In addition to the Spotsylvania facility, Lidl will soon open the company’s U.S. headquarters in Arlington County. In total, Lidl is investing more than $200 million in its operations in Virginia and has pledged to create a total of 700 new jobs in the state by 2018.