Source, Philadelphia Business Journal, Natalie Kostelni

Two retailers are entering the King of Prussia retail market and have backfilled vacant spaces at two different shopping centers.

Aldi, a discount grocery chain, and Hobby Lobby, an arts and crafts store, will open this spring in an area north of the King of Prussia Mall that has several retail centers clustered on both sides of Route 202 at Henderson Road. This pocket of King of Prussia has seen new strip centers developed or existing properties redeveloped in recent years that has brought in several new stores and created a dense retail area.

Target Corp. was one of those newcomers. It opened a 165,000-square-foot store in a newly constructed addition to the Valley Forge Shopping Center and, across the street, a Stein Mart. Super Wawa and Chick-fil-A anchor a new center. Though not as high-profile as the mall or space across from the mall, this part of Route 202 has found its niche.

“The market has been pretty hot with the King of Prussia Town Center and the redevelopment of some of the mall,” said Nelson Max, a broker with CBRE Inc. “The north end of town has more of the discount retailers.”

Aldi will open in the King of Prussia Center at 197 E. DeKalb Pike. It will occupy 17,500 square feet of space formerly occupied Bottom Dollar Foods as well as about 2,000 square feet of space once filled with PetCo. Bottom Dollar opened in the King of Prussia Center October 2010 but in 2014 all of Bottom Dollar’s locations closed and Aldi bought all of its real estate. Petco then closed at that location, giving Aldi an opportunity to grab a portion of that space to have a store a size more to its specifications. Max represented the landlord, D&P Associates, with the Aldi lease.

That 119,000-square-foot center has seen other tenants come and go. For example, a Staples vacated and Deluth Trading Co., an apparel store, went into that empty space.

Hobby Lobby signed a lease with Kravco to occupy 57,000 square feet of space at formerly occupied by Acme at DeKalb Plaza at 320 W. DeKalb Pike. Acme closed the store last year.