Gourmet store new to Richmond market will locate in Henrico County

                 
Southern Season announced plans Thursday to open a $15 million, 49,000-square foot gourmet food store in Staples Mill Centre, an 80-acre, urban mixed-use community located between West Broad Street and Staples Mill Road in Henrico County.

The store said in a press release that it will offer gourmet foods, an extensive wine selection, housewares, cookware, candy, cut flowers, a coffee and ice cream shop, tasting stations, take-out prepared food and a bakery. A restaurant and cooking school also are planned for the site.
     
Based in Chapel Hill, N.C., Southern Season operates a 60,000-square foot flagship gourmet food emporium there.  It recently announced plans to open its second store, in the summer of 2013 in Charleston, S.C.  The Henrico County store will be the company’s third.

“We are excited to bring the Southern Season experience to Richmond … The new store will include one of the world’s largest gourmet food markets with a vast selection of local and international products,” Clay Hamner, chairman and CEO of Southern Season Acquisition Corp. said in a statement.

Richmond-based Gumenick Properties, a real estate development and management company, said Southern Season will fit well with its plans for the new community.  “We envision Staples Mill Centre as a close-knit neighborhood and regional destination. Southern Season’s unique blend of gourmet products and amenities will appeal to the surrounding community’s residents, who can walk to the store, as well as Central Virginians … “said Wayne A. Chasen, Gumenick Properties president and CEO.     

Architectural and engineering work is underway for the building.  If all goes according to plan, construction will begin in the fall of 2013 with a grand opening set for mid-2014.  No rezoning is needed for the store.
   
In addition to commercial tenants, the mixed use project will have a library. Henrico County announced in June that it’s build ing a new public library in the community to replace the current Dumbarton Library. The three-story library will be located next to a two-acre lake with a fountain that eventually will be surrounded by residences and shops. The library is expected to be under construction in mid-2014 with an opening slated for summer 2016. Gumenick Properties donated the land for the library.
   
Gumenick plans to open the first building of retail shops and offices for Staple Mill Centre in 2015 and to locate its offices there. When finished, the company says the project is projected to have 994 homes, 1,096 apartments, about 150,000 square feet of retail space and 50,000 square feet of office space. 

Barry Hofheimer and Alex Hamilton of the Richmond office of CBRE represented Southern Season in the transaction.