A New Grocery Store Is Coming to Festival Centre in North Charleston
Festival Centre is getting a grocery anchor again — more than a decade after Piggly Wiggly left the North Charleston shopping center.
A new grocery store has been secured for Festival Centre at 5101 Ashley Phosphate Road, with an opening planned for 2027.
Patrick Nealon, Director of Retail at Festival Centre owner Woodlock Capital, announced the deal Thursday, saying the “ink is dry” and that Festival Centre will once again become a grocery-anchored shopping center.
Woodlock Capital’s own website confirms Nealon serves as the company’s Director of Retail, while the center’s current commercial leasing materials now independently advertise “a new Grocery Store coming in 2027.”
There’s one major detail that hasn’t been revealed yet:
Who is the grocery store?
Festival Centre Has Been Without a Grocery Anchor for More Than a Decade
According to Nealon, Piggly Wiggly left Festival Centre in 2013.
That would make the incoming grocer the shopping center’s first grocery anchor in roughly 14 years when it opens in 2027.
For now, neither Nealon’s announcement nor Festival Centre’s current public leasing materials identify the retailer.
That means Publix, Aldi, Lidl, Trader Joe’s — or any other name people might speculate about — should remain exactly that: speculation until the tenant is officially announced.
The Grocery Store Is Part of a Bigger Festival Centre Comeback
The announcement comes as Festival Centre undergoes a broader transformation under new ownership.
Charleston-based Woodlock Capital purchased Festival Centre in September 2024 for $22 million and outlined plans to revitalize the property with a new mix of retail, entertainment, restaurants and other uses.
One of the biggest pieces of that strategy is ParTee Shack, which signed for approximately 77,000 square feet at Festival Centre. The family entertainment concept includes attractions such as mini golf, go-karts, arcade-style entertainment and other activities.
Current Festival Centre marketing materials also highlight tenants and planned additions including Planet Fitness, PickleRage and ParTee Shack, while positioning the incoming grocery store as another major anchor expected to increase regular traffic to the property.
For a shopping center that has gone through years of vacancies and changes, the grocery announcement represents another significant piece of that redevelopment.
Where Will the Grocery Store Go?
That’s another detail WGOIC is not calling confirmed yet.
The rendering shared with the announcement points toward the large space associated with American Freight.
However, Festival Centre’s current commercial listing still shows a 40,704-square-foot anchor space, Suite 36, as available for lease. Because public commercial listings can lag behind newly signed deals — and because Woodlock has not publicly confirmed the grocery store’s exact suite — WGOIC is not identifying that space as the grocery location yet.
That is something we’ll be watching for in the next update.
What We Know So Far
🛒 New grocery anchor: Confirmed
📍 Festival Centre: 5101 Ashley Phosphate Rd., North Charleston
📅 Planned opening: 2027
🏪 Grocery brand: Not yet announced
📐 Exact space/size: Not yet publicly confirmed
🏗️ Part of: Festival Centre’s ongoing redevelopment
The center itself spans hundreds of thousands of square feet at the highly traveled Ashley Phosphate Road retail corridor, and current leasing materials advertise numerous remaining retail opportunities alongside the incoming anchors.
The Next Question: Who Is It?
That’s now the development story to watch.
Festival Centre has the deal.
The grocer is coming.
But until Woodlock Capital or the retailer officially puts a name on it, we’re leaving the guessing game to Charleston.
North Charleston — what grocery store are you hoping takes the spot?
WGOIC will update this story when the grocery tenant, exact location or a more specific 2027 opening timeline is announced.
