Albertsons Lays Out $184M Site Plan

The answer is just about every nook and cranny that can be had for the large-scale cash infusion. In hand for 2002 are sites for seven new stores and eight fuel centers. The 2002 effort carries a $90-million price tag and includes three remodels of existing stores. The balance of the $184-million coffer will be spent in 2003 on six new stores, eight more fuel centers and five remodels.

An Albertsons' contact says Winn-Dixie's exit, announced in recent weeks, opens opportunities, but she's not giving as to whether talks have begun for any of the 71 Winn-Dixie sites being vacated in North Texas. One thing is fairly certain: Winn-Dixie brokers aren't out goung to be left out in the cold. "If we had the opportunity to take a closer look at those locations, we would do that," she stresses to GlobeSt.com.

The contact is talking far more definitively about the 2002 locations that will put construction crews on sites from one end of the metroplex to the other. New stores will be built in Fort Worth at the intersection of Interstate 820 and Clifford; Arlington at US Highway 287 and Sublett Road; Saginaw at US Highway 287; Dallas at Coit and Spring Valley; McKinney, Virginia and Stonebridge; and the communities of Wylie and Boiling Springs. The average store size is 65,000 sf, with the exception of Dallas and Fort Worth, which will be closer to 62,000 sf apiece. All but McKinney will be getting fuel centers. Remodels are planned for Dallas stores at Dallas Parkway and Frankford, McKinney and Lemmon and Buckner and Garland. As for the 2003 locations, Albertsons reportedly has most of them picked out, but isn't sharing the addresses just yet.

The Albertsons' contact says she isn't sure if the $184 million is the largest one-time investment pumped into a development program. But, it is 30% higher than the 2001 allocation to Dallas-Fort Worth and represents a deep-pocketed affirmation of the grocer's commitment to North Texas--unlike San Antonio and greater Houston where it's been unable to corner a satisfactory and profitable market share. "We are here to stay," Larry Johnston, CEO and board chairman, said in a prepared statement about the North Texas expansion.

Albertsons entered the DFW market in 1984. Since then, it has grown to 97 stores and 10,000 jobs in the region in a nationwide network of 2,300 stores in 33 states and more than 220,000 employees.