Construction is underway on a lot along Tucson’s Sunshine Mile to make way for a future Trader Joe’s grocery store.
The parcel at 2150 E. Broadway, near South Plumer Avenue, was previously the site of a Dollar Store and vacant tabernacle.
The site will be a Trader Joe’s store with food and beverage services, records filed with the city show.
The national chain currently has four other locations across metro Tucson.
In June of 2023, a plan was submitted to the Rio Nuevo board for an unnamed national grocer to move into that spot.
At that time, local developer Marcel Dabdoub told the board the grocer was very selective and conservative about growth plans.
He planned to reconfigure the southwest corner of Broadway and Plumer Avenue to accommodate the future tenant with plentiful parking.
How Broadway and Plumer Avenue will be redeveloped to make way for a new Trader Joe’s grocery store.
The Rio Nuevo district stretches from downtown, along Broadway to Park Place, and generates revenue from sales taxes.
When the plan was presented two years ago, the board voted to give the project $1.5 million upon opening, not upfront.
Reached by the Star earlier this week, Dabdoub said he was unable to provide updated information.
A spokesperson for Trader Joe’s said the new Tucson store has not been officially announced and could not comment, despite plans submitted to the city and construction already started.
The new location for a Trader Joe’s store has not been officially announced, but construction has already started on East Broadway and South Plumer Avenue.
The new Trader Joe’s will be near the existing Safeway, at Broadway and South Campbell Avenue, and Natural Grocers, at Broadway and South Country Club Road.
But grocery analysts say shopper’s habits tend to take them to different stores in search of specific products.
A growing number of people view Trader Joe’s and the German discount grocer, Aldi, as primary destinations for grocery shopping, even though both carry a smaller selection of products than traditional supermarkets, according to the analytics firm Placer.ai.
Its data shows that visits to both stores have steadily grown in recent years, with a larger share of weekend visitors than the nationwide average, meaning shoppers view Trader Joe’s and Aldi as “weekend stock-up destinations” and prefer the smaller format.
Both stores sell primarily private-label brands. Aldi is looking at moving into an existing space in the Tucson market and the company bought land on Park Avenue, near Interstate 10, to build a future store.
While construction of the Trader Joe’s on Broadway is underway, plans with the city do not specify an opening date.
Trader Joe’s has about a dozen new store openings announced across the country this year.
