The Fresh Market is leaving the Town of Vienna.
The North Carolina grocery chain’s last day of business after nearly 15 years at Danor Plaza will be May 31, employees confirmed to FFXnow.
Word of the impending closure began to spread among customers last Friday (May 8). Some expressed condolences to workers while getting their groceries checked out and lamented the loss of a store that local residents have come to rely on.
“After careful consideration, The Fresh Market has chosen not to renew the lease at our store in Vienna,” Fresh Market’s media relations team said in a statement, though the company didn’t share any further details about what led to that decision.
Starting today (Monday), Fresh Market is offering 10% discounts on all items at its Vienna store, according to employees. A store manager said that “some workers will get the opportunity to transfer” to other locations.
For the rest of the month, the grocery store will continue to operate from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Opened at 150 Branch Road SE in July 2011, Fresh Market’s Vienna store was its first in Northern Virginia and remains one of only two locations in the region, along with an Alexandria store that opened in 2014.
The Greensboro, North Carolina-based chain is planning two new locations in Reston and Falls Church City. Announced in July 2024, the stores were “expected to open within the next three years,” Fresh Market said in a press release at the time.
There’s no indication that those plans have changed, but construction has yet to start on the senior living and multifamily apartment buildings in the Midline at Reston Station neighborhood where Fresh Market’s 27,000-square-foot Reston store will be located.
Previously anticipating demolishing the existing, vacant office buildings at 1831 and 1861 Wiehle Avenue sometime in 2025, developer Comstock Companies has declined to comment on a new possible timeline for the project when asked for updates.
The Falls Church grocery store will occupy approximately 29,000 square feet at 101 Haycock Road on the ground floor of a future residential building in the West Falls development.
Meanwhile, The Fresh Market’s store in Vienna is now being advertised as available for lease by retail broker Papadopoulos Properties, starting in the fourth quarter of 2026. A marketing brochure describes the 22,000-square-foot space as a “rare grocery/big box
opportunity in [a] highly desirable market.”
Other businesses in Danor Plaza include Big Buns Damn Good Burgers, Norm’s Beer and Wine, Pazzo Pomodoro, Sweet Ginger, Kaizen MMA and the Chinese restaurant Chef Tan, which opened last July.
Hat tip to Rich Arnold
