Lowes Foods plans Kannapolis debut, with another store opening soon in the Charlotte area

A North Carolina grocery chain continues to expand in the Charlotte market, this time with a store planned in Kannapolis. A Concord store also is expected to open soon.

Lowes Foods will open a 50,887-square-foot store at Kellswater Commons in Kannapolis, according to the Winston-Salem-based grocer.

Lowes Foods has three Charlotte-area locations, in Mooresville, Harrisburg and Huntersville. It competes with other North Carolina chains like Harris Teeter based in Matthews and Food Lion in Salisbury, as well as Florida-based Publix, German discount grocers Lidl and Aldi, and Asheville specialty grocer Earth Fare.

The 25-acre Lowes Foods site at Kannapolis Parkway and Rogers Lake Road is adjacent to Kellswater Bridge, a planned 370-acre residential development, according to developer MVP Properties’ website.

Lowes Foods did not say when the store will open or provide more information.

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The shopping center site plan shows two retail spaces, each 6,250 square feet, sharing the supermarket’s parking lot. There also are several commercial outparcels surrounding Lowes Foods.

The first phase of the project is expected to break ground later this year, developer MVP Properties said in a news release Wednesday.

The competition to capture grocery shoppers’ dollars is steep in the Charlotte market, where Walmart and Harris Teeter consistently rank at the top.

The Kannapolis store is part of a large development that includes 10 outparcels from 1 acre to nearly 9 acres surrounding the center, and Georgetown Crossings, a 142-unit townhome community, next door, site plans show. The future Northwest Cabarrus High School is across Kannapolis Parkway, plans show.

Lowes Foods expanding

Last February, Lowes Foods debuted its Huntersville store in the former Earth Fare site at 14021 Boren St. with a food-hall style design and an entertainment area for parties, live music, classes and game nights, the Observer previously reported. It was a first-of-its-kind store for Lowes.

And, the Kannapolis store isn’t Lowes Foods’ only store planned in fast-growing Cabarrus County.

A 52-000-square-foot store will anchor the 17-acre Christenbury Village shopping center in Concord when it opens early this year, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. The site is within a mile of Concord Mills.

Lowes Foods plans to open another store near Charlotte on Possum Hollow Road in Indian Land, S.C., the company said in a news release Tuesday. Other expansion plans include Aiken, S.C., and Pittsboro, N.C. The company did not say when the stores are expected to open or provide other information.

Those three stores, as well as Concord and Kannapolis, are in various stages of planning and construction, Tim Lowe, Lowes Foods president and head of retail for parent company Alex Lee said in a statement Tuesday.

Lowes Foods also has been expanding in new markets like Greenville, Columbia and Charleston, all in South Carolina.

Just over a decade ago, Lowes Foods began pulling out of Charlotte, swapping stores with Harris Teeter and closing underperforming stores in 2014, as part of a reinvestment strategy in new stores and remodeling others.

The 67-year-old company has almost 9,000 employees at 80 Lowes Foods supermarkets in the Carolinas. Lowes Foods is a subsidiary of Alex Lee, based in Hickory.

Other grocery stores in Charlotte

Several other supermarkets recently have opened or are expanding in the Charlotte region:

▪ In December, International grocer Super G Mart opened its third and largest North Carolina store at 10500 Centrum Parkway in Pineville. A food hall will open in the spring, plus there will be a full-service restaurant and more retail.

▪ In November, California-based online grocer Food Rocket made its East Coast debut operating from within two Circle K stores in Charlotte at 8505 S. Tryon St. and 8008 Harris Station Blvd. The new concept offers delivery within a half hour for a 6-mile radius.

▪ In November, Food Lion, based in Salisbury, opened a store in Cleveland and in June at 5939 Weddington Road, in a former Harris Teeter location in Charlotte. Last January, Food Lion opened at 2201 West W. T. Harris Blvd., also in a former Harris Teeter location, in Charlotte.

▪ In May, Lidl, discount German grocery opened its 10th store, at 11200 Carmel Commons Boulevard.

▪ Publix, based in Florida, is planning several store openings: Clear Creek Crossings at Albemarle and Rocky River Church roads in Charlotte; The Colony at Sharon and Colony roads in SouthPark; Harris Farms Shopping Center at Coddle Creek Highway and Kistler Farm Road in Mooresville; North Creek Village at Sam Furr and Davidson Concord roads in Huntersville; 10 Tryon building at Tryon and Ninth streets in uptown; and Arboretum at Providence and Pineville-Matthews Roads.