This North Carolina grocery chain is expanding again in the Charlotte market

A North Carolina grocer is expanding again, this time with plans to open a store in Concord.

The Winston-Salem based Lowes Foods will anchor Christenbury Village in Concord, according to a news release on Charlotte developer MPV Properties’ website. The 17-acre shopping center under development is at the intersection of Cox Mill Road and Christenbury Parkway near Concord Mills.

The 52,000-square-foot grocery store is expected to open in early 2023, according to MVP Properties.

Charlotte’s grocery store competition is steep, as other supermarkets continue to expand locally, including Food Lion, Publix, Lidl, Aldi and newcomer Farmstead all vying for market share.

Lowes Foods’ latest plan comes just months after the supermarket said it will open a store in the former Earth Fare site at 14021 Boren St. in Huntersville. That store will include a food-hall style design and an entertainment area for parties, live music, classes and game nights, the Observer previously reported.

Plans at the Concord store are still in development, Lowes Food spokeswoman Kelly Davis said. The Concord store is twice the size of the Huntersville one, which is nearly 26,000 square feet, according to Mecklenburg County property records.

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

“We continue to grow, we just haven’t grown in the Charlotte area,” Davis said.

The 67-year-old company has two other stores in the Charlotte market, in Mooresville and Harrisburg. Lowes Foods, a subsidiary of Alex Lee in Hickory, has nearly 9,000 employees at 80 Lowes Foods supermarkets in the Carolinas.

More about the Concord development

The Concord development will include two five-story, mixed-use buildings with about 150 apartments and 26,000-square-feet of ground floor commercial space, a two-story, 24,000-square-foot medical office and two one-story retail shop buildings totaling 13,000 square feet combined, according to the leasing plan.

Christenbury Investors, an affiliated of MPV Properties and Mission Properties, expects to break ground on the first phase of the project this year.

Hot supermarket competition

Lowes Foods joins a heated competition among grocers around Charlotte, which is dominated by Walmart and Matthews-based Harris Teeter, according to sales tracking firm Chain Store Guide’s latest data.

In June, Lidl opened its ninth Charlotte area store at 615 W. Mallard Creek Church Road in University City. In the spring, Lidl opened a store in Steele Creek. The German discount grocer also plans to open two more stores at South Boulevard and Carmel Commons.

Other recent supermarket openings include:

▪ In June, Asheville-based specialty grocer Earth Fare opened its fifth area store in Davidson.

▪ Salisbury-based Food Lion opened a store at 1620 Ashley Road in Charlotte, and reopened stores in York and Chester, S.C.

▪ Last year, Silicon Valley online-only grocer Farmstead debuted on the East Coast, opening a distribution hub in West Charlotte. In April, Farmstead expanded its free delivery service to North Carolina homes within an hour’s drive of its Westwood Forest warehouse.

▪ German discount grocer Aldi recently opened stores in Cornelius, Rock Hill and Indian Land, S.C.

▪ Florida-based Publix plans to open at least five more Charlotte-area stores, at the Arboretum, North Creek Village in Huntersville, 10 Tryon building in uptown, at the corner of Sharon and Colony roads in South Park and 11525 Carmel Commons.