Wegmans Dashes Hopes in Annapolis, Denies Atlanta Rumors

After more than a year of collaboration with the planning department of Anne Arundel County in Maryland, Wegmans Food Markets announced last week it was pulling the plug on plans for a store in Annapolis.

In a screenshot, reportedly of Wegmans’ intranet, first posted by the Eye on Annapolis website and later confirmed by The Annapolis Capital Gazette, Wegmans said, “We were unable to reach an agreement that made sense for this project in terms of visibility, traffic circulation and cost. Therefore, we have decided to withdraw our application for this site.” Wegmans also removed Annapolis from its list of future sites on its website.

According to The Capital Gazette, county officials confirmed the Rochester, N.Y.-based retailer had withdrawn its application for the proposed site on Riva Road near the Parole Town Center, citing irreconcilable differences with Parole Town Center planning, which, for one, states all buildings at that site must be two stories.

As the Southeast knows firsthand from Wegmans’ record-breaking September store opening in Raleigh, N.C., which drew thousands of eagerly awaiting fans to the grocer’s foray into the state, these stores are no ordinary supermarkets.

While last week witnessed Annapolis’ dashed hopes for a new Wegmans, it also briefly heard cheers of Atlantans who got wind of a rumored new 80,000-square-foot store in the Perimeter Pointe project in Sandy Springs, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. Wegmans officials, however, strongly disputed that report, which appeared in Tomorrow’s News Today Atlanta, a local commercial development blog.

While it is not uncommon for retailers to be guarded on potential developments, in part to avoid unwinding agreements such as Annapolis in public view, a spokeswoman for Wegmans said there was “no truth” to the blog report about its metro Atlanta ambitions and added the company was not currently looking at any sites in Georgia. The blog, however, said it would “stand by our report.”