The Fresh Market sets April 26 opening for northeast Richland gourmet grocery store

After months of delay, it appears The Fresh Market on Two Notch Road will open late next month.

A sign posted in the front of the new 22,000-square-feet structure at Two Notch Road and Fore Avenue across from the Village at Sandhill shopping and residential complex sets the grand opening for April 26.

It would be the Greensboro, N.C.-based retailer’s second Columbia location, though Lexington town officials say construction is underway for a third store in the local area on U.S. 378. The gourmet grocer has operated a store in Trenholm Plaza for several years.

The Fresh Market on Two Notch Road is anchoring the new 36,000-square-feet shopping center at the back of the 3-acre site that has been under construction at Fore Avenue since late 2015.

The retail cluster at the site also includes a stand-alone 14,000-square-feet shopping center and a separate 8,000-square-feet retail space at the front of the site along Two Notch Road.

Other businesses in the shopping complex include a Pet Supermarket adjacent to The Fresh Market store in the rear of the complex, along with a Zoe’s Kitchen and Mod Pizza in the front buildings. Orangetheory Fitness, a gym and interval training center, is already open.

When The Fresh Market’s plans for the new store were disclosed in November 2015, the goal was to open the Two Notch Road store by late summer of 2016 or early fall, according to the commercial real estate firm, Colliers International, which brokered the deal for the space.

However, The Fresh Market was acquired in March 2016 by the New York-based private equity firm, Apollo Group Management, for $1.3 billion.

That acquisition set off an assessment of the layout design for The Fresh Market’s pending new stores, Colliers said, which resulted in a delay in completing construction and opening stores.

The Fresh Market did not return phone calls Friday for comment on the new Columbia-area specialty grocery stores.

This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 2:05 PM with the headline "The Fresh Market sets April 26 opening for northeast Richland gourmet grocery store."