Harris Teeter: Waiting for green light, literally

Monica Chen's coverage of Tuesday night's NCDOT meeting on the Hillandale Rd. widening crystallized a rumor that had been swirling around about the old Loehmann's Plaza shopping center for about six months: namely, that Harris Teeter is considering opening a store there.

As Chen notes, shopping center owner Glenwood Development states HT is interesting in opening a store there (the N&O had previously reported that one renovation of the center would include a large grocery-sized store at one end of the property), but that the grocer will only open there if a traffic light is installed to help with ingress/egress.

One has to wonder whether resolution of this issue is contributing to the hold-up in North Durham with the proposed Harris Teeter at Willowdaile. On the one hand, the Loehmann's and the Willowdaile site are separated by only about 5 minutes' drive. On the other, it's not clear that the Teet wouldn't want both locations.

For the fourth-largest city in North Carolina, Durham is deeply underserved by the grocery chain, whose aging, tiny North Durham store is the only HT north of South Square. This as opposed to, say, Greensboro, where zoning regulations seem to require that any new house in northwest Guilford County must be within 'spittin' distance' of a Teet.

A Hillandale location would appeal to Croasdaile and surrounding environs as well as, importantly, central Durham residents in Watts-Hillandale and its neighbors. The Willowdaile store could still in that fashion suck up truer North Durham retail demand. Plus, HT has gone through a number of permitting and entitlement steps and their associated soft costs on the northern site already; it's a bit hard to see them backing off that now.

Still, much seems to hinge on whether DOT gets off of the median and decides on a traffic light. Next step is to see what they choose to come back with.

Comments

[erin]

Greensboro shout out! There are, indeed, 4 Teets within a 3 mile radius of my apartment. It is a bit absurd.

[Toastie]

I don't think HT cares about having multiple locations so close together, as they'll have the two right off 54 in South Durham soon (Fayetteville + 751), and they had the two along 54 in Chapel Hill for awhile (15-501 + Meadowmont). I think the idea is that people don't want to have to drive more than five minutes to their grocery store. A Harris Teeter off Hillandale would be terrific. I've got two Krogers within 5 minutes of me, and I don't like either one. It's a minor detail, but I feel like I can't walk around without being assaulted by Kroger's religious-right book displays. No such problem at Whole Foods, but the store on Broad St. is so cramped that it's hard to walk around without running into someone or something at every turn. And there's no aspartame or sucralose to be found; WF's a little too natural for me sometimes. HT's have a lot of the crunchy, organic stuff plus 12-packs of Cherry Coke Zero (on sale for $4.69 off the "regular price" of $5.99)!

[Toby Berla]

Kevin -

Your blog is a great resource to me, as someone new to Durham (arrived in August). One thing would help us newbies, though. If you could give us enough geographic information to locate the subject of your posts it would be great. For example, the new HT may be located at the corner of Hillandale and [what]? I don't know where the old Loehmann's Plaza shopping center is...

Thanks!

[Barry]

One block north of I-85, about half a mile south of Carver.

[Dan S.]

Loehmann's Plaza (now "Croasdaile Crossings") is on the west side of Hillandale, here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=loehmann's+plaza&sll=36.031601,-78.936231&sspn=0.003223,0.004892&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=18&om=1

It's the home of Papa's Grille (a fantastic restaurant).

[conrad]

as a north durham resident, and someone travelling the hillandale corridor every day, this seems like a big mistake. anyone else recall the traffic mess caused by the I-85 bridge construction and widening? sure the traffic is heavy, but not usually too awful except for the daily rush hours, and even those aren't so bad.
and what about between club and I-85? perhaps a turn lane there, or at least a sidewalk? oh wait, can't disturb the precious golf course.
and the willowdaile teeter is probably even less than five minutes away...