Another grocer eyes Hilton Head
Are Chick-fil-A and another Walmart coming to Hilton Head Island?
Developers want to build a 7-acre shopping center at Palmetto Bay and Target roads, according to a proposal submitted to the town. The center will include a grocery store, a gas station and two other stores.
Few additional details about the shopping center were revealed Monday.
The engineer who filed the plans, Larry Barthelemy of Hanahan, declined to disclose who is developing the site. He said he didn't know what grocery or retail stores were planned.
Barthelemy's plans, filed Oct. 3, show Marietta, Ga.-based Crown Development Group as the developer.
On Crown's website, a June 26 site plan for the shopping center shows a Walmart Neighborhood Market in the space reserved for a grocery store. A Chick-fil-A is pictured as one of the stores in the center.
No tenants are listed for the six-pump gas station and the other store.
Attempts Monday night to reach Crown representatives were unsuccessful. Attempts to reach Barthelemy for further comment were unsuccessful.
Town staff members and town manager Steve Riley said they have no information other than the plans Barthelemy submitted.
The center would go in a largely wooded area along Palmetto Bay Road, according to the plans. It would take the place of The Bridge Shops and The Great American Dry Cleaner, which caught fire last June.
The grocery store would be 47,500 square feet, or about half the size of the Kroger that opened at Shelter Cove Towne Centre last December.
It's the second supermarket planned for Hilton Head in the past year.
Whole Foods Market unveiled plans last October to occupy the former Piggly Wiggly. The 30,000-square-foot store opened in July.
The Palmetto Bay supermarket would give the island 13 major grocery stores. It would compete with the Publix across Palmetto Bay Road, the Bi-Lo off Pope Avenue and the Harris Teeter in Park Plaza, among other grocers.
David Martin, who owns the Piggly Wiggly in nearby Coligny Plaza, said he's not sure how many more grocers the island can carry.
"I'm not trying to tell a developer what to do with their property, but the question is, do we need it?" he asked. "It spreads the pot pretty thin."
Follow reporter Dan Burley at twitter.com/IPBG_Dan.
Related content:
- Hilton Head residents divided over Shelter Cove Towne Centre, Sept. 27, 2014
- Whole Foods to open July 30 on Hilton Head, July 9, 2014
This story was originally published October 13, 2014 at 7:27 PM with the headline "Another grocer eyes Hilton Head."