New grocery store proposed for northwest Rochester

Jeff Kiger, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·2 min read

Nov. 30—ROCHESTER — A new retail center, described in permits as a Cub Foods grocery store, is in the pipeline for northwest Rochester.

Minneapolis-based

Kraus-Anderson

filed plans this week for a 88,500-square-foot retail center to be built on the corner of Commerce Drive Northwest and Scott Road Northwest, just north of the Staybridge Suites hotel. If built as planned, it would stand across Commerce Drive from the

First Alliance Credit Union

commercial center and a stand-alone

Starbucks

location.

While Stillwater, Minnesota-based Cub has not confirmed or denied a proposal for a north Rochester store yet, the site development plan lists the project title as "Cub Foods — Commerce Drive."

That spot would put Cub's proposed second Med City store in the shadow of

Costco

and a few hundred feet away from the

north Rochester Aldi grocery

store.

Hy-Vee's fourth Rochester store

, which is slightly larger than the proposed Cub store at 90,000-square-feet, is also a mile and a half away at 4221 West Circle Drive NW.

Cub seems to be following the same Med City game plan of many retailers that have a pair of stores in north and south Rochester. That includes Aldi, Target, Walmart, Menards, Goodwill and Petco. The proposed north Cub store would have slightly less floor space than the south one, which is 89,000-square-feet.

Cub built its south Rochester store

at 1021 15th Ave. SE in 1986. Its construction was reported as costing between $6 million and $7 million, at the time.

This plan filing follows

Kraus-Anderson's purchase of more than nine acres of open land

for $4.77 million on Oct. 31. KA bought the land from David Arnett's Arnett Enterprises. Arnett still owns another five and a half acres of developable land in the parcel, which he had divided just before the October sale.

If approved, this proposed store would join many other businesses in the rapidly growing northwest commercial area, where open land is becoming more scarce.

Northwest Investments of La Crosse, Wisconsin, the real estate arm of the Kwik Trip convenience store chain, acquired the 108-acre commercial area in 2010. Hans Zeitlow of Northwest Investments/Kwik Trip called the area "the key property on the west side" of Rochester.

Costco, the anchor for the development, opened in 2012. That set off a flurry of development of restaurants, retail stores, hotels and bank branches around the site.