Fresh Thyme will locate its next supermarket in Minneapolis

Fresh Thyme Farmers Market announced Tuesday that its sixth Twin Cities location will be in the Prospect Park neighborhood of Minneapolis.

The store will be part of a mixed-use property at 24 30th Av. SE., near the University of Minnesota campus, and is expected to open in March 2018.

Called The Link, the development will have 530,000 square feet of space for retail, a restaurant and 336 apartments in a 13-story tower. The project replaces the former Kemp's ice-cream factory and is on the Green Line of the light-rail system.

Earlier this month, the Chicago-based supermarket chain confirmed that it plans to open two or three stores in the area in 2018. A company spokesperson said it is not ready to announce any other locations.

The supermarket chain entered the Twin Cities market in 2015 with a store in Bloomington. Since then, it has opened outlets in Apple Valley, Plymouth, Savage, Vadnais Heights and St. Cloud. A St. Louis Park store is set to open in the fall.

The new store will include a separate liquor store, a feature that the Plymouth, Vadnais Heights and St. Cloud stores also have.

With a new Fresh Thyme in Prospect Park and a new Trader Joe's on Washington Avenue in Minneapolis in 2018, the two smaller-sized grocers with an emphasis on organics and produce will each have eight Minnesota locations.

Last year, Fresh Thyme chief executive Chris Sherrell said that the company hopes to have a dozen stores or more in the Twin Cities by 2020. It continues to search for sites in West St. Paul and Coon Rapids after previous locations fell through as well as in St. Paul near the former Ford plant.

John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633