Fresh off the opening of two new stores on Florida’s Space Coast, buzzy boutique grocer Trader Joe’s is now setting its sights on Kissimmee and Maitland for continued expansion.
North American Development Group, the Toronto-based company that owns the Loop West shopping center in Kissimmee, has filed site plans with the city and South Florida Water Management District for a new 12,500-square-foot grocery store on the retail pad north of JCPenney, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.
NADG also owns Tomoka Town Center in Daytona Beach, where it opened a new Trader Joe’s on Nov. 14. The proposed grocery store’s building size and layout match typical Trader Joe’s prototypes, which are less than 15,000 square feet.
Meanwhile, Harbour Retail Partners, which bought Trelago Market in 2020, received preliminary approval this week from the Maitland City Council for a new 12,500-square-foot specialty grocery store with 5,300 square feet of attached, inline retail on Lot 3 of the shopping center. Renderings shown during the meeting used the same signage style and font as Trader Joe’s but with the name “Farmer Jon’s.”
Trelago Market owner Harbour Retail Partners is planning a 12,500-square-foot Trader Joe’s in the Maitland shopping center. (Rendering courtesy of Harbour Retail Partners)The shopping center at Maitland Concourse was designed with a grocery anchor in Lot 2, which was initially leased to Amazon Fresh, but the grocer never occupied the space. Harbour Retail’s Matt Bloomfield said they recently signed a new tenant: Crunch Fitness.
Bloomfield said that expanding the shopping center onto Lot 3 made sense because it opens up the retail pad, which previously could only be accessed from the rear.
“It’s really perfect for kind of the daily needs and the health and fitness and the elevated fresher concepts for food,” Bloomfield said. “And so having the fitness on one end with the grocery on the other has a really good balance.”
Just north of the proposed store, David Weekley Homes is planning 85 high-end townhomes on Lot 6 of the mixed-use project.
The 2.6-acre Loop West parcel at the corner of Thacker Road and Dyer Boulevard already has a parking lot with 173 spaces. The developer plans to remove 29 spaces and install six new ADA spaces on the south side of the store, for a net loss of 23 spaces. That would leave 150 spaces on the lot, with plenty of overflow parking at adjacent stores.
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Hagerty’s Reagan Fitzgerald (20) celebrates with teammates Tuesday after scoring a goal in the first half vs. Oviedo during a 2-1 overtime win in a Class 7A regional quarterfinal.
The site is in the heart of Kissimmee’s most desirable retail node and near another specialty grocer: The Fresh Market. Other tenants in the nearly 300,000-square-foot Loop West shopping center include Burlington, T.J. Maxx, Books-A-Million, Nike, and Altitude Trampoline Park.
The German-based grocer declined to confirm specific plans for the Loop West store, but said it is looking to expand to Kissimmee. “We are actively looking at hundreds of neighborhoods across the country, including areas in Kissimmee, as we hope to open more new neighborhood stores each year,” spokesperson Nakia Rohde told GrowthSpotter.
Subsequent to that interview, the Orlando Business Journal published a story about the Maitland location. The Business Journal said Trader Joe’s would not discuss its plans there.
In the Orlando market, the company operates stores in Winter Park and Dr. Phillips.
Jason Kaiser, principal of SRS Retail Services, told GrowthSpotter it makes sense that Trader Joe’s would be scouting the Loop submarket. “It’s literally an amazing trade area,” Kaiser said. “It’s one of our go-to trade areas for our clients that when we go out to tour the markets, that trade area is always on our list.”
Kaiser said Osceola County’s higher mobility fees, which went into effect this year, have slowed new construction in the county. But this site is in the Kissimmee city limits, so it’s not subject to the higher fees.
Trader Joe’s is owned by the same German family as Aldi, but the two chains operate separately. Trader Joe’s launched a rapid expansion plan for 2025, announcing it would open 41 new stores across the nation by year’s end. As of Monday, the company had opened 36 stores and had another nine listed as “coming soon” on its website. The small-format stores are known for private-label, low-cost, and unique seasonal items, such as Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches and Peppermint Brookies.
“They are a pure destination retailer, and people will drive forever to get the specialty items that they’re looking for,” Kaiser added.
Nearby, Atlanta-based SJC Ventures is wrapping up construction on Orange Blossom Plaza, which has an available grocery anchor space that was planned as an Amazon Fresh.
And across Osceola Parkway, Ocean Bleu Group completed and opened Floor & Decor this year at its Square at Osceola Parkway shopping center. The 50-acre Planned Unit Development was approved back in 2020 for 320,000 square feet of office, 521,000 square feet of retail, and 300 hotel rooms. At one point, Aldi was on board to build a grocery store there, but it dropped out, along with other retailers, when the project stalled.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.