The Fresh Market Inc., a Greensboro, N.C.-based chain of upscale specialty grocery stores, is in negotiations to open a store at River Point Village Shopping Center in Fox Point, replacing the Borders book store at 8750 N. Port Washington Road in the shopping center, according to a Milwaukee retail real estate source.
Aurora Medical Group also plans to close its location at River Point Village Shopping Center, the source said.
Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Borders Group Inc. planned to close about 200 of its 674 stores.
“We are going to initiate a store closing plan as part of our repositioning,” Borders spokeswoman Mary Davis told BizTimes Milwaukee. She declined to provide any details about what stores will be closed.
But a Milwaukee retail real estate source said that North Shore Center Partners, the owners of River Point Village Shopping Center, expect the Borders store there to close and are close to a deal with The Fresh Market.
Currently the only Fresh Market store in the state is located at 15895 W. Bluemound Road in Brookfield.
The other Borders stores in the Milwaukee area are located downtown and at 5250 S. 76th St., Greendale, in a Southridge Mall outlot.
The Milwaukee retail real estate source predicted that the Greendale store will remain open.
“And in the event that it does close, re-tenating it would be easier (than the downtown location) because of the redevelopment plans for Southridge,” he said.
