Fresh Thyme opened in Waite Park today, their 6th Minnesota store. They also opened in Kenosha today, their 2nd Wisconsin store. This brings their total store count to over 50 stores in 10 states, and 16 more coming. Here in Minnesota, the St. Louis Park store on Excelsior Blvd is next up for the chain.
The Waite Park store opens in the former KMart building here, joining Dick’s Sporting Goods and Five Below.
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.
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 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.
Calling all J.Crew fans! A new “J.Crew Mercantile” retail concept is opening June 1 at CWN-managed Shoppes at Knollwood, located in St. Louis Park.
J.Crew Mercantile plans to celebrate its June 1 grand opening with an all-day in-store event. Shoppers that day will get 20 percent off purchases of $125 or more.
The new tenant joins a growing list of retailers to open at the renovated Shoppes at Knollwood, which last year went through a 10-month renovation that transformed the nearly 60-year-old, 456,554 sq. ft. enclosed mall into a power center with most retailers facing the street. The complex is anchored by Kohl’s and Cub Foods, with TJ Maxx, Old Navy and DSW in junior box plots. Other new additions since the “de-malling” include Nordstrom Rack, Ulta Beauty, Torrid and Smashburger, among others.
