Before a Food Lion opened on Oak Island several years ago, it could take some time to make a simple supermarket run.

“There was a small grocery store at the very top of the island, but people that lived on the west end would have to go all the way to Southport to get groceries,” said Debi Dolan-Prince, broker in charge of the Wilkinson ERA Real Estate office on Oak Island. “And it’s not easy if you’re missing butter or sugar at the last minute. That’s a 35-minute trip.”

For homebuyers or other potential new residents in the midst of deciding where to live, amenities like grocery stores can play a part.

“When people are looking for convenience, having a grocery store nearby can be an asset for sure,” Dolan-Prince said.

Grocery store development in the Cape Fear region has been on the upswing in recent months, with recent announcements including a small grocery store downtown and a potential Aldi discount chain location in Leland.

Part of that upswing can be attributed to existing population numbers and potential growth in those numbers, especially in areas where income levels match target markets. It’s a factor for some companies looking to open new stores, including Publix Super Markets Inc., which has announced one store in Wilmington on South College Road – though another in the Ogden area has been listed on site plans. More local Publix stores, including a potential Oak Island location, are in the works by developers.

“Publix is a Florida-based company that operates over 1,100 stores in six states in the South, and expanding into North Carolina was a logical move. With Wilmington’s future growth, Publix sees the need to be in this market and is excited about their store at Bragg and South College Road,” said Vin Wells, a broker with Cape Fear Commercial, in an email.

Wells is managing the South College Road Publix project for his firm’s development arm, GHK Cape Fear Development.

As the population grows in downtown Wilmington, where new apartments are on the rise and in planning stages, a company opening an urban food market that focuses on local offerings expects to count those newcomers as customers.

“The community continues to grow downtown,” said Randall Heath, sales and marketing director for Farmin’, a local business that plans to open Farmin’ on Front this summer. “The outlet for them to go and shop for local groceries is unavailable.”

Farmin’ on Front will offer fresh local seafood, meats, produce, bakery items and other groceries in about 6,000 square feet of space at 143 N. Front St.

A smaller, niche store made sense downtown where space is tight, Heath said. 

Farmin’ on Front has been in the planning stages for a while.

In September 2013, Carolina Farmin’ closed its 2-year-old store at 2101 Market St. because the property didn’t fit the company’s vision for the future, Heath said. Farmin’ also dropped the “Carolina” from its name and leased space at 4102 Emerson St. for its Creative Campus, a 25,000-square-foot facility where regionally grown produce, meats and dairy products are packaged, prepared and distributed to wholesale clients, including many downtown restaurants. 

Even after the Market Street store closed, the company continued to work on plans to open a different retail location again in behind-the-scenes efforts that culminated in the signing of a 5-year lease for the Front Street location, company officials said.  

“We are back,” said Farmin’ president Ben Long in a news release earlier this month. “We’ve traveled many miles studying how similar urban markets accomplish smaller-footprint, big-impact models to bring a special shopping experience to downtown Wilmington, one that rivals comparative markets of Charleston and Savannah.”

Signs announcing Farmin’ on Front went up in the windows on Front Street on Feb. 2. 

The next day, downtown resident Lew Lobosco was taking a look at the full-color portrayals of leafy greens and other products the store is expected to carry.

“I’m excited about it because we don’t have any grocery stores downtown. We have a little convenience store on Second that doesn’t have very much,” he said. “This will be great.”

Like a lot of other consumers, the semi-retired Lobosco and his wife currently buy food from a variety of sources.

“Right now, we’re getting Blue Apron delivered to us three times a week,” Lobosco said, referring to the meal kit service. “We’ve been really living on that, and on weekends we’ll go for a meal in a local restaurant. Now maybe we can supplement that with some other fresh food.” 

Farmin’ officials call 143 N. Front St. the “first” retail location planned as they actively look for other, similar opportunities in the region. 

Grocery store development in the Cape Fear region has been on the upswing in recent months, with one recent announcement centered on a potential Aldi, a discount grocery store chain that had submitted site plans to build a 19,000-square-foot location in Leland.

Meanwhile, a different niche store, Tidal Creek, a food co-op at 5329 Oleander Drive, has announced its intentions to find a new location.

“We are looking at a couple of sites very closely, and I think that we were steering away from downtown proper just to make sure that we have enough space [at least 8,000 square feet],” Shaylah Paul, Tidal Creek Co-op’s marketing coordinator, said earlier this month. “We want to have ample parking, so like [Farmin’s] Front Street location was never really on the docket for us. But we are still looking in the downtown area.”

Paul said Feb. 2 that the co-op’s board of directors was working on a presentation to make to city of Wilmington officials to “explain what our intentions are and what we want to accomplish in hopes of getting their support.”

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NEW PLAYERS

ALDI

A discount grocery store chain founded in Germany

• Leland: Site plans submitted then withdrawn for modification

FARMIN’

Wilmington-based company that focuses on fresh, local food

• 143 N. Front St., Wilmington: Space leased for summer 2016 opening

LIDL

Discount grocery store chain founded in Germany

• Site plans under review by city of Wilmington

PUBLIX

Florida-based employee-owned supermarket chain

• Bragg Drive and South College Road, Wilmington: Under construction for mid-summer 2016 delivery

• Market Street and Middle Sound Loop Road: City approved minor site plan change Feb. 2. 

• Oak Island: In discussion stage; Recent general zoning change would allow a grocery store

• Ocean Isle Beach: In initial discussion stage