Aldi coming to planned North Broad development

A 14-story apartment and commercial development that’s coming into North Broad Street, will set aside nearly half of its ground floor to an Aldi grocery store.

The discount grocer, which currently has stores in 35 states across the country, has signed a lease for the over 25,000 square feet of space in the planned development at 1300 Fairmount Avenue, according to Philly.com. It’s the latest news for the project, which sits just south of the Divine Lorraine and is overseen by Developer RAL Cos. & Affiliates. The development will go in at the corner of North Broad and Fairmount, bringing apartments, retail space, and a plaza to the spot, currently a vacant lot.

Developers were given a $3 million state grant for the project in 2016 and, in June, they announced plans to break ground on the 58,000-square-food space by the end of the summer, according to Philly Business Journal.

Aldi plans to open more stores in primarily residential buildings across the country, calling them “mixed-use development” stores, Aldi representatives told Philly.com. This store at Broad and Fairmount is the first “mixed-use” Aldi store in Philly, but it follows a trend other grocers have started around the city. Sprouts is opening a location adjacent—and semi-connected—to The Lincoln apartment project at Broad and Washington.

Developers hope to complete the project by 2020, they told Philly.com.

• Aldi sets sights on Center City shoppers with store below apartments planned near Divine Lorraine [Philly.com]
• Center City’s new residential developments, mapped [Curbed Philly]
• RAL to finally break ground on $190M project at 1300 Fairmount [Philly Business Journal]