Fresh Thyme #5 Opens

Fresh Thyme

Fresh Thyme opened in Plymouth on Wednesday at the corner of Highway 55 and Vicksburg.  This new center developed by Oppidan includes Goodwill that opened last month, and a Starbucks under construction.   As was true at their previous openings, one of their first day promotions is a free give-away of a bag of groceries to the first 250 customers when the door opens at 7:00.   The first customer showed up at the Plymouth store at 2:30 in the morning to be first in line!  More Fresh Thymes coming:  Waite Park is next up, followed by St. Louis Park and Prospect Park.  Fresh Thyme is represented by Roger Lanahan of Cambridge Commercial.

Breaking News: Ruby Tuesday closes at least seven Minnesota restaurants

rubytuesday

Over the last few days, 8 of the 12 Minnesota Ruby Tuesday restaurants have closed, as has 1 of the 2 Fargo stores.  The remaining stores are in Inver Grove, Shakopee, Rosedale and Southdale.

As the Site Selection Broker for 9 of the 12 Ruby Tuesday restaurants in Minnesota, I find it interesting that high profile properties like Plymouth and Eden Prairie were shuttered while two properties in smaller, less dense, suburban-fringe markets where Ruby Tuesday was the only ‘player’ remain open.

The race for space is on, as every piece of decent retail/restaurant real estate that comes available will have multiple interested parties.  Stay tuned!

Fresh Thyme doubles number of stores in Minnesota

With the opening last week of two more stores, Fresh Thyme has four locations and more coming.  The Savage store opened in 30,000 sf of the former Rainbow store, with the Vadnais Heights store of the same size going into the former Festival Foods store.  By all accounts, they opened with lots of buzz and great sales.  Their Bloomington store opened last year, and was the only site until Apple Valley opened this spring.   The next location to open is Plymouth at Highway 55 and Vicksburg in mid-September, along with St. Louis Park, Prospect Park, Waite Park and West St. Paul in the works.

They also added liquor to their offerings, with the Vadnais Heights stores having a liquor store.  Plymouth will also offer liquor, and more will be added to future locations if feasible.

fresh-thyme

Want a glass of wine with that meal?

Fresh Thyme

Fresh Thyme will open a liquor store in Vadnais Heights with their new store opening next week, featuring 450 wine varieties and local beer.   This will be their 3rd store in our market, along with the Savage opening next week for the 4th spot.   The Plymouth store will follow this fall, and a store in St. Louis Park also opening with a liquor store.   Average size for FT stores is 28,000 sf, without liquor.   They currently have stores open in Bloomington and Apple Valley.