Look Out, Whole Foods — Sprouts Is Coming for You
Grocery stores in Northeast Philly, Northern Liberties and South Philly are set to debut, with two mystery locations yet to be unveiled.
Sprouts Farmers Market — the grocery company specializing in fresh, natural, organic food — is planning to open six new stores in and around Philadelphia. / Photograph by Erica Agran
We love some good grocery store news — from Wegmans opening in Bucks County (and the excitement/borderline mania that has come with it) to deep-discount shopping hacks and cookbooks written by local Trader Joe’s enthusiasts.
It’s why we’re thrilled over the fact that Sprouts Farmers Market is planning to open six (!) locations across the region over the next two years, as confirmed by the Philadelphia Business Journal last week.
The first two, slated to open mid-2024, will be located at Quartermaster Plaza at South 23rd Street and Oregon Avenue and at the Roosevelt Mall in Northeast Philly. The latter will be a nearly 24,000-square-foot store, and is part of a $50 million redevelopment project of the open-air shopping center at Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard.
“When you think about the northeast corridor, the area is absent of specialty markets,” says Dan Croce, Sprouts senior vice president of real estate and new store development. “You have to go into Jenkintown to go to Whole Foods, for example. There’s nothing on the Boulevard like Sprouts.”
Plus, the site of the former Festival Pier will become home to a Sprouts sometime in 2025. The 24,740-square-foot store — which will have parking! — is set to be the anchor retail tenant of RiverMark, the forthcoming mixed-use development on the Delaware Waterfront. The revitalization effort, which spans nine acres, will also boast 470 apartments across two buildings, 10 additional retail shops and restaurants, four acres of open green space — like a large public park, ample lawn space, and a walking trail that’ll connect to the Delaware River Trail — and a massive art installation, including a 60-foot stainless-steel sculpture outfitted with LEDs.
Suburbanites will be happy to hear that Sprouts also plans to open a store in Limerick — at the intersection of Ridge Pike and Township Line Road — in late 2025.
Two additional stores will be opening, but Croce — and the Sprouts company at large — could not share any details due to NDAs currently in place. Unfortunately, we don’t know where they’ll be or when to expect them, but perhaps we have one minor clue: “I live in Glen Mills, Laura. Trust me, there’s opportunities coming,” Croce told me over the phone.
Sprouts debuted in Philadelphia five years ago, with its fresh, natural, organic food at Broad and Carpenter streets. Since then, the Arizona-based company has opened local outposts in Upper Dublin, Haddon Township, Marlton, and Wilmington. These additional six stores will bring Sprouts’ Philly-area presence to 11 locations.
“Part of Sprouts’ mission is to help people find their definition of ‘healthy,’ and the opportunity is wide for the Philadelphia market,” Croce says. “Customers love our Broad Street store, and we’re here to [continue to] earn the city of Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs’ business.”
