Another Pick'n Save Shopping Center Sold

Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust  announced today that it has acquired the Shoppes at Fox River a 135,484 square foot shopping center in Waukesha, Wisconsin, (the former Super Value warehouse location) a suburb of Milwaukee, for $23.8 million in an all cash transaction. The Shoppes at Fox River was built in 2009 and is anchored by a 61,045 square foot Pick ‘n Save (Roundy’s Supermarket) and shadow-anchored by a 132,382 square foot Target.

The Cap rate for the sale of three Ramco-Gershenson Properties was a blended 9.1%

Mequon Metro Market

Store on schedule to open March 1, 2010.  This store will be very special, the first ground up Metro Market in the greater Milwauee area.  Roundy's putting its best foot forward in the high end market of Mequon.

Sendiks New Berlin October 17th

This past week Sendiks opened a new store in the former New Berlin Plaza.  (Intersection of Moreland Rd and National Ave.)  The new store was very busy during its grand opening, with the expectations high the store delivered a positive first impression.  As usual Sendiks presents a very unconventional store layout with the traffic pattern starting with wine and cheese and ending with the typical Sendik's produce department.  I was very impressed with the bakery and Deli departments, but concerned that the self service meat department, behind floor to ceiling glass doors, maybe too different for consumers to accept.  Carpeting in the store gave a warm and friendly environment for its shoppers.  The parking lot has some problems with traffic flow and competition for spaces from other businesses.  The entrance to the store is very different, customers seemed a little confused by the direction the retailer wanted them to enter the store.  I believe this store will be very successful in filling the needs for a upscale customer in New Berlin.

Woodman October 16th

Saturday October 16th the Woodman's in Menomonee Falls was really in full swing of its Grand opening.
My estimate is that the parking lot was 90% full, while in the store customers jamed the isles with shopping carts.  The checkout service was very good, with baggers at all registers and trained staff handling the large crowd of people.  The store presentation is very similar to all of the other Woodman designed supermarkets.  Large grocery presentations with unbelieveable variety of product selection.  Pricing impressions with the customers appeared was strong with massive displays of paper products and beverage selections.  $1.99 24pack water was in every shopping cart.  Since, this is the grand opening its still hard to say how the long term success of this store will be, but based upon these limited results Woodman's will make its mark on the Menomonee Falls and Milwaukee's northwest side.

Sendiks to open in New Berlin

Sendiks is about complete on its new store in New Berlin.  The store will have its Grand opening on Thursday October 14th.  This should be a good location for Sendiks, while its store size is somewhat smaller than what one would expect for such an investment it will get a good review by New Berlin shoppers who have no other choice than Pick'n Save. 

Woodman's Menomonoee Falls

Woodman's newest store is almost complete.  I would expect the grand opening to take place either in the middle or end of October.  It has been Woodman's history to open the store early even if the entire store is not complete.  He has done this at the Howell ave location on Milwaukee's southside.  This store is over 200,000 square feet, with much of that space reserved for backroom storage.  Woodman's will not have an easy time opening this store.  Roundy's has developed two 100,000 square foot Super Pick'n Save locations that offer a unique counter to Woodman's marketing plan.  Those locations are at 76th and Good Hope, and Appleton ave in Menomonoee Falls.  Retailing should be interesting in 2011 with these 3 stores.

Roundy's Super Pick'n Save

Roundy's Super Pick'n Save

Roundy's relocated from it's existing location to the former K-Mart site in Menomonee Falls.  The K-Mart was demolished to make way for the construction of this new 100,000 square foot building.  This is the second 100,000 square foot store Roundy's has built on the northwest side of Milwaukee.  The other store is located on 76th and Good Hope Road at a former Home Depot location.  Roundy's had been moving away from the large format stores in favor of the smaller neighborhood locations around 60,000 square feet.  The development of 100,000 square foot store reverses that trend.  Now Roundy can merchandise the store to effectively counter the development of other big box grocery retailers.  Woodman's new store in Menomonee Falls will get a real test from the Milwaukee's market leader, Super Pick'n Save.  The other Wisconsin big box grocers, Super Wal-Mart and Hy-Vee, should pay special attention to this new Roundy format.

Mequon Metro Market

Mequon Metro Market is taking shape.  Construction Schedule will provide for an opening in first quarter of 2011.  This will be Roundy's third Metro Market in the greater Milwaukee area.

Mariano's In Arlington Heights, Ill

Mariano's Fresh Market in Arlington Heights, Ill 

This store has been open about 2 weeks, and is very well received by the consumers in Arlington Heights.  The Roundy's team has done a great job of getting this store off the ground.  The store has many of the same features of the Whole Foods operations in the great Chicago land area.  The major difference is the expanded grocery selection this presentation has over Whole Foods.  In the authors opinion this is the direction Whole Foods should be going with its stores.  The store is about 68,000 square feet.  This is a first class operation and Safeway and Super Valu should be concerned.

Roundys Metro Market underconstruction

The replacement store for the former Pick n Save, located in Mequon, is well under construction. The new store will be 62,000 sq. ft. and called Metro Market. The grand opening for this store will be early winter of 2011. Roundy's has seen great success with this format in downtown Milwaukee and Brookfield. This will be the third Metro Market in Wisconsin.