Fresh Market set to open in Bonita

After months of waiting and several delays, Bonita Springs is getting its own Fresh Market.

The gourmet grocery store will have its grand opening Feb. 15, complete with a jazz band, guest chefs with food samples and an outdoor grill turning out ribs, said Eric Blaesing, director of community relations for the Greensboro, N.C.-based chain.

The store, just shy of 28,000 square feet, was originally scheduled to open last fall. It will share half of the 52,000-square-foot site of a former Winn-Dixie store with Office Depot, which is already open.

Locally, the family-owned Fresh Market chain has a store in Naples, a store in Fort Myers and another one planned in North Naples. The Bonita Springs store will be the chain’s 54th location, Blaesing said. It’s the 13th in Florida.

According to the company’s estimates, the Bonita Springs store is expected to create about 100 jobs.

Like the Bonita location, the North Naples store has faced setbacks.

There have been a variety of permitting and construction-related delays, Blaesing said. Construction will begin on the North Naples store in early 2007, he said.

Fresh Market came as a welcome addition to the owners of the strip mall, Naples-based Barron Collier Cos. The mall lost about half its tenants after Winn-Dixie closed in 2000 as part of a nationwide reduction in the grocery chain’s stores.

The departure of Winn-Dixie, coupled with traffic congestion caused by the problem-plagued U.S. 41 widening project, have really hurt the effort to find and lock in tenants for the mall, said David Borden, vice president of Barron Collier Cos.

Photo by TRISTAN SPINSKI, Naples Daily News

Geoff Shipper, left, and Jerome Wilkens stock the frozen food section of the new Fresh Market grocery store in Bonita Springs on Tuesday afternoon. The store, which aims to recreate the feel of an “Old World European market,” is set to open Feb. 15 in the Bay Landing shopping center.

The company has also signed a lease with Harrington Pharmacy and a contract with the Bonita Springs Fire Department for the sale of 1.5 acres fronting West Terry Street.

That leaves another 1-plus acre parcel on West Terry Street and about 4,800 square feet of space within the mall in need of tenants.

“Everyone is having trouble with the road construction. But we have certainly had a lot more interest from others in locating there since the announcement of Fresh Market as a tenant,” Borden said.

Fresh Market specializes in fresh produce, meats and seafood, prepared foods and deli and baked goods. So far, the company has spent about $1 million on interior remodeling to get it set up in its signature “old European-style market” setting.

It’s a feel that wins points with the customers.

“I love the atmosphere here,” said Colene Gutowski, a Naples resident who shops at Fresh Market at least once and often twice a week. “It’s always clean and they always have fresh food. Someone was just over in the produce department cleaning out things that weren’t fresh.”

Winning customers with the store’s “intimate setting” is exactly what Fresh Market is going for, Blaesing said.

“We are not out to replace your grocery store. If you shop at Fresh Market, you still have to go to the grocery store,” he said. “We are not trying to be everything for everyone. We want it to be the kind of place where you can ask questions and talk to your butcher or your deli person.”

Joe Benner does just that, whether he’s running in for freshly sliced sandwich meat or shopping for an evening of entertaining.

“Their produce is fresh, they have preprepped food and no one touches anything without gloves,” Benner said. “My wife is an excellent cook but their preprepped foods take away much of the effort from cooking.”

Customers like Mary Ann Donahue shop the store for foods ranging from soups to seafood and deli items. Others, like Lucile Johnson, prefer to browse the produce department for specialty items.

“It doesn’t eliminate the need to go to Publix but it’s worth the extra trip,” Johnson said.

And worth the slightly higher prices, Gutowski said.

“It is slightly more expensive, but the quality is worth it,” she said.

The Bonita Springs store is located in the Bay Landing Plaza off U.S. 41. It will open at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15.