SAN JOSE — An Asian-themed supermarket will open its first California store next year after leasing a big space at a San Jose retail center, marking an ongoing expansion for the grocery chain.
T&T Supermarkets is headed to Westgate Center, an outlets- and restaurant-oriented center at 1600 Saratoga Avenue in southwest San Jose, according to documents filed on Aug. 12 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.
The Canada-based Asian supermarket chain said its future San Jose site totals 55,000 square feet and is the location of a former Walmart store.
The new T&T Supermarkets store is poised to be a unique retail venue, not only for Westgate Center but for the entire South Bay region. The Asian market is slated to open its doors in 2025.
“We aim to create a destination,” said T&T Supermarkets Chief Executive Officer Tina Lee. “It’s a place for discovery, innovation, and bringing people together through food.”
T&T Supermarkets believes it can achieve this bold goal by turning the future store into more than merely a place to grab some groceries.
“It’s a place for discovery, innovation, and bringing people together through food,” Lee said. “We want to evolve our grocery store beyond the functional. We want to be the place where people want to go, not just need to go.”
Federal Realty Investment Trust, the primary owner of Westgate Center, and T&T Supermarkets have completed a lease. The rental agreement enables the Asian grocery store to lease the space for 10 years, the county records show. The transaction’s financial terms weren’t disclosed.
T&T Supermarkets also obtained the option to extend the lease for as many as four option periods of five years each, according to the public records.
Federal Realty is also the principal owner and developer of Santana Row, a destination mixed-use neighborhood at the corner of Stevens Creek Boulevard and South Winchester Boulevard in San Jose.
T&T Supermarkets currently operates over 33 stores across Canada and offers what it describes as a “full-service unique shopping experience.” T&T Supermarkets offers “authentic Asian products, fresh produce, a full-service meat counter, live seafood tanks, and an in-store prepared foods program,” the retailer added.
The new location will feature a BBQ counter, noodle station, dim sum and street food section, hot food bar, and a made to order Chinese crepe station. The store will also have an in-store bakery with freshly prepared delights such as mochi puffs, egg tarts, Hong Kong-style pastries and customized cakes.
Customers will also be able to experience the grocery chain’s private-label products. These include pineapple cakes, Taiwanese sausages, soup pork dumplings and green onion pancakes.
A top Federal Realty executive said he was impressed when he visited a T&T Supermarkets store in Canada.
“The first time I visited a T&T, it blew my mind,” said Federal Realty western region president Jeff Kreshek. “I came back from Canada thinking, ‘We have to make this happen.’ People don’t know what they are missing.”
The new T&T store is expected to create 200 jobs. People who wish to apply for a job can visit the T&T Supermarkets website, according to the supermarket chain.
The San Jose store would represent the first Bay Area market for T&T and only the third in the United States.
Yet the South Bay location also represents a personal accomplishment for company CEO Lee.
“San Jose is a very special place to me,” Lee said. “My aunt lives in Saratoga, and I have spent many summers there. It brings back great memories. This store is for her.”