ST. LOUIS — Amazon is in talks to open a grocery store in Sunset Hills, the St. Louis Business Journal has learned.
The e-commerce company is working with commercial real estate firm Sansone Group to repurpose the vacant Toys "R" Us storefront at the Shoppes at Sunset Hills, at 3600 S. Lindbergh Blvd., into an Amazon Fresh grocery store, according to several local real estate sources.
It would be the first Amazon Fresh in the state of Missouri. The company operates a dozen locations in California and the Chicago area, according to its website.
An Amazon spokesperson told the Business Journal that it "doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation." Officials with Sansone Group could not be reached for comment.
Sansone, which owns the Shoppes at Sunset Hills, has gone before Sunset Hills city officials several times this year as part of the process to establish a community improvement district (CID) for the property, though it has never revealed the name of the tenant that would anchor the CID.
On Tuesday, Sansone Group told the Sunset Hills Board of Aldermen that it couldn't share the name of the grocery chain it is in talks with but said the tenant would occupy at least 25,000 square feet at the Shoppes, a 9.5-acre shopping center that is 81% vacant. Sunset Hills City Administrator and City Clerk Brittany Gillett said Sansone has also not shared the name of the grocery chain with the city.
Sansone Group is seeking to establish a CID that would charge a 1% sales tax in order to fund some of the redevelopment costs as well as infrastructure improvements that include access to the Shoppes from Watson Road and from neighboring restaurant Helen Fitzgerald’s.
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