They say nothing succeeds like success, and that's the attitude
Lund's is bringing to plans for a new grocery store in St. Paul's Lowertown.
The grocery chain has committed to leasing 30,000 square feet of ground-floor space in the Penfield, a mixed-use building for which the City of Saint Paul has taken over the role of lead developer.
Mayor Chris Coleman announced the grocery deal at a press conference last week for an initiative called
Rebuild Saint Paul that encompasses $15 million in city funding for more than a dozen development projects around the city.
The Penfield project has had its ups and downs but the grocery chain remained certain it wanted to be a part of it, says spokesman Aaron Sorenson. One reason: a similar and "extremely successful" Lund's store near downtown Minneapolis.
"This store is patterned in many ways on [the] Northeast Minneapolis [store]," Sorenson said, adding that St. Paul store will have more of an emphasis on prepared foods and "grab 'n' go" items. The Northeast Minneapolis store is slightly smaller at 26,000 square feet.
The Northeast store, the chain's only new location in the last decade, gives Lund's "extra confidence" in its downtown St. Paul prospects, says Sorenson, noting that both sites are on the "outskirts of downtown."
"We feel very confident about bringing that model" to St. Paul, where Lund's sees a rising downtown population that lacks a nearby full-service supermarket.
Sorenson emphasized that Lund's interest has held steady throughout shifts in Penfield plans. With or without city or federal money in the project, Lund's always intended to lease space at market-based, not publicly subsidized, rates.
Back in Minneapolis, plans are yet to gel for a store actually in downtown, where Lund's owns a two-story building. Those two floors, Sorenson says, raise a difficult question: "What items do you put on what level?"
Source: Aaron Sorenson, Lund's
Writer: Chris Steller