Food Lion will bring groceries back to North Charleston’s Festival Centre

A grocery store is coming back to Festival Centre in North Charleston, more than 13 years after the last one closed.

Food Lion will anchor the shopping center at 5101 Ashley Phosphate Road, in the Dorchester County part of the city, The Post and Courier reported Oct. 22. The store is expected to open in October 2027, the newspaper reported.

The North Carolina-based grocer will take the space left by American Freight, which closed after the retailer went bankrupt, and will co-anchor the center with Planet Fitness, according to the newspaper.

Festival Centre has been without a grocer since a Piggly Wiggly that operated there for 25 years closed in 2013, according to the newspaper. Woodlock Capital, which owns the center, has been working with Food Lion since November 2024, the newspaper reported.

“Ever since the Piggly Wiggly left Festival Centre, everyone involved with the center has been trying to bring a grocery store back because it’s such a great traffic driver,” Patrick Nealon, Woodlock’s director of retail and real estate, said, according to The Post and Courier.

Woodlock bought the 325,347-square-foot center in 2024 for $21.75 million through a partnership with a Charleston-based private investment group. It has since redone the parking lot, paint, signs and landscaping and added tenants including the Partee Shack entertainment venue, Pickle Rage, a Dutch Bros. coffee shop and a Chase bank, according to the newspaper.

The new store will have competition close by. With a Publix across the street and a Harris Teeter nearby, finding a grocer that could complement those options was key, the newspaper reported.

“As with any retail property, anytime you can attract a national or regional grocer like Food Lion, it’s going to bring consistent traffic that benefits the entire shopping center,” Hal Swanson, Woodlock’s director of retail, said, according to the newspaper.

Food Lion has more than a dozen stores in the Charleston area and about 1,164 across Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, The Post and Courier reported.