Wegmans Sets Sights on First State

A developer has revealed plans for what could be the first Wegmans Food Markets location in Delaware.

Pettinaro, a Wilmington, Del.-based development company, said this week that Wegmans would be a tenant in Barley Mill Plaza, a new mixed-use community to be built at the site of a former DuPont Co. office complex in the wealthy Greenville area of Wilmington.

The Wegmans store would open in 2022, according to local reports. It would be a part of a 56-acre complex that would also include new residences, offices and retail built at the former office complex, which has been vacant for a decade. Pettinaro acquired the site in 2016.

Officials with Wegmans and Pettinaro weren’t immediately available to comment. Typically, the Rochester, N.Y.-based retailer will announce forthcoming store locations only after they have received local approvals. The plans still require approval from New Castle County officials, the News Journal reported.

Wegmans runs high-volume stores surrounding Delaware in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, but it has yet to sink a shovel in the First State. The Barley Mill location could potentially impact area grocers such as Albertsons’ Acme Markets, which operates several stores nearby, and Janssen’s Market, a well-regarded single-store grocer that was named among WGB’s 2019 Remarkable Independents. Janssen’s store is located less than 2 miles from the proposed site in one of the most affluent ZIP codes in Delaware, counting among its residents former Vice President Joe Biden.

Wegmans this week was also said to have filed plans to build a sixth location in North Carolina’s Research Triangle, according to a report in the Triangle Business Journal.