Family Dollar adding central Virginia location

After announcing plans to close and open hundreds of locations in 2019, a national dollar store chain is adding a new store in Richmond.

Family Dollar plans to open next month a new location at 624 W. Southside Plaza. The national company has leased the 12,750-square-foot space.

Last week, Family Dollar’s parent company, Dollar Tree, announced plans to close 390 Family Dollar stores in 2019. Plans also call for opening 350 new Dollar Tree stores and 200 new Family Dollar stores. In addition, the company is rebranding 200 Family Dollar locations under the Dollar Tree banner and renovating 1,000 Family Dollar locations.

Dollar Tree bought Family Dollar in 2015 for $8.5 billion. The company has not said which stores will or might close. As of February 2, there were 7,001 Dollar Tree stores and 8,236 Family Dollar stores. Virginia has 180 Dollar Tree stores and 240 Family Dollar locations. 

Family Dollar’s sales have struggled for years due to “neglected stores, poor product selection and unhappy workers, according to analysts,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“I know it’s worth more to us than we are getting credit for and quite frankly it’s not worth that much to anyone else,” Dollar Tree CEO Gary Philbin said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal discussing Family Dollar’s future. “We are the ones committed to fixing and growing it.”

Nicki Jassy of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer represented Family Dollar in its lease negotiations for the new Richmond location.