When Target cut the ribbon on its Middletown store earlier this week, it became the first major occupant of that city’s large Northside Shopping Center.
It’s also another step in the rapid commercial development of the state’s fourth largest city. Three other major anchor stores are expected to be operating in the center developed by Lee and Louis Ramunno by early 2025.
“Middletown will be one of our fully loaded, top-of-the-line stores with 147,000 feet of space,” says Loni Monroe, a spokesperson for Target. The big-box store will include drive-thru order pickup and same-day delivery for Target Circle 360 members. Inside, Target will include an Apple store, a CVS pharmacy, a Starbucks café and an Ulta Beauty salon.
In all, Target plans to employ 175 people. The hiring process is underway, Monroe said.
In January 2023, the Minnesota-based corporation purchased the 13-acre parcel – located within the shopping center on the west side of Middletown-Warwick Road near the intersection with Main Street – for $4.1 million from the Ramunnos. Target will soon be joined by three other anchor stores – Sprouts Farmer Market, PetSmart and Hobby Lobby.
The Phoenix-based Sprouts food store is slated to open in December. That store will have an open layout and will feature fresh produce with a wide variety of organic, plant-based and gluten-free products, according to Lou Ramunno.
“PetSmart will be opening soon, and Hobby Lobby is expected to open in January,” he added.
Ramunno serves as the manager of the shopping center, and said when complete, it will include 230,000 square feet of retail. “We expect it to be fully built out in the next year or so,” he said, calling it “almost like a mall.”
The shopping center is divided into three city-block-like sections, with the completed Target store and its large parking lot occupying the center section. The Sprouts and PetSmart stores are already framed out, with interiors still being completed, and will anchor the southern block. The Hobby Lobby store, not under construction, will be the main store in the northern block.
The center has an existing strip on its northern highway frontage where a Burger King, Village Wine and Spirits and Popeyes already operate. A relatively new Dash-In gas station and convenience store is located adjacent to the shopping center stoplight opposite Peterson Road. A final existing tenant, Harbor Freight, is physically separated, located across the highway at the corner of Peterson Road.
But the Sprouts and Hobby Lobby are not the only big shopping icons coming to Northside Shopping Center.
“We have five more committed tenants, including a Honeygrow and a First Watch,” both parts of food chains, Ramunno said, noting that the
center has a total of eight pads as well as two strip spaces where stores will be only 80- to 100-feet in depth. Although Target purchased its property, most of the center’s properties are leases.
The Northside Center is located along a section of Middletown Warwick Road (Route 299) that includes three other shopping centers to its south, including the large Westown Town Centre less than a quarter mile away.
The Middletown region has been the fastest growing area in the state with both major commercial and residential developments. In 2000, the city had slightly more than 6,000 citizens. Today that number has more than quadrupled to around 25,000.
According to Metro Commercial, there are more than a quarter-million people residing within a 30-minute drive of the Northside in 96,968 households. Median income per household is in excess of $81,000 annually, and the average annual household income tops $107,000. Five-year growth for the area is projected at 5.52%.
Ramunno’s center also comes with a built-in customer base, with the Middletown Village residential community located directly behind Northside, between it and the limited access Route 301.
“It has 300 apartments, 450 townhouses and 350 single homes,” Ramunno said. “I just wish we had more land available.” The center, he said, is his company’s largest development project to date.
Target had a soft opening on Oct. 8, but plans to open entirely to the public on Oct. 13.
