SpartanNash is closing one of its two distribution centers in Maryland. The Grand Rapids, MI-based wholesaler, which also operates 147 corporately-owned retail stores in nine Midwest states, will shutter its military-focused depot in Landover by September 30. According to a WARN notice (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification act) sent to the state, 141 employees will be impacted.
Remaining open will be the company’s other Maryland depot, a 365,000 full-service former US Foodservice facility based in Severn, MD which the company leased in October 2020 to primarily serve dozens of planned Amazon Fresh (AF) stores in the Mid-Atlantic. At the time, real estate developer Provender Partners, said the seven-year deal was worth $25.8 million.
While leases for more than 50 Amazon Fresh stores that were slated to be developed in the Mid-Atlantic had been signed in 2020, 2021 and 2022, only 11 AF units are currently open in MD, NJ, NY, PA and VA.
However, the company plans to open stores (from those original lease signings) in the near future in Annapolis, MD; Glen Burnie, MD; Silver Spring (White Oak), MD; Arlington, (Crystal City), VA; Bensalem, PA; Langhorne, PA; and Willow Grove, PA. In June, the first of the company’s “second-generation” stores debuted in Eatontown, NJ.
A few weeks before agreeing to lease the Severn DC, publicly-held SpartanNash issued warrants to Amazon, which could potentially acquire as much as 5.44 million common shares, representing about 15 percent of SpartanNash’s outstanding common shares.
For Amazon’s potential $96.4 million investment, SpartanNash would continue and further reinforce a relationship with Amazon that began in 2016 to help support Amazon’s then-fledgling online grocery delivery.
The Landover warehouse was opened in 2012 by Minneapolis-based wholesaler Nash Finch to serve miliary customers in the Baltimore-Washington market. A year later, Nash Finch merged into Spartan Stores to create SpartanNash.
