After months of peeking through construction dust and papered-over windows, East Liberty is finally getting a firm opening date for its next upscale grocery player. Fresh Market is set to move into the former Whole Foods space on Centre Avenue, and neighborhood shoppers are already mentally reorganizing their weekly lists.
The specialty grocer is taking over the long-vacant building where Whole Foods once anchored the block. Crews have been working the site for months, and a big billboard on Liberty Avenue has been teasing the switch, signaling that the wait is just about over.
Posted Opening Date
The first public date dropped via a billboard in Bloomfield that pegs opening day as next Wednesday, March 18, according to the Pittsburgh Business Times. That sign is the most concrete update yet for a project that has been roughly two years in the making since the chain initially floated its East End plans.
Where It Will Be
Fresh Market’s own store listing puts the new shop at 5880 Centre Ave and identifies Mariah Sampsel as the store manager, complete with a local contact number for questions. As listed on The Fresh Market store page, the location sits between Centre and South Euclid avenues in East Liberty, right in the thick of the neighborhood’s grocery row.
How The Deal Happened
Commercial real estate firm CBRE secured the lease for the building, which has been sitting empty since Whole Foods moved out in 2022, WPXI reported. At the time of the announcement in 2024, CBRE’s Herky Pollock labeled the signing “hugely transformative,” a signal of just how much the landlord side of the equation wanted another marquee grocer back on that corner.
What Shoppers Will Find
Fresh Market pitches itself as a curated grocery experience, with an emphasis on prepared meals, an in-store bakery and a custom meat counter. Those features are expected to give it a different feel from the discount-focused chains nearby. The company’s store page singles out meal kits, USDA Prime beef and a lineup of specialty produce as key departments that will anchor the East Liberty store.
Neighborhood Impact
With Fresh Market joining the mix, the East End’s grocery scene gets even more crowded. The new arrival slots into a lineup that already includes Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Aldi and the East End Food Co-op, a cluster that local businesses say is likely to ratchet up competition for both weekday commuters and weekend shoppers.
Real estate agents are not waiting for the grand opening. Listings for nearby condos and rentals are already touting walkable access to the incoming grocer, with a mid-March opening now baked into several property descriptions.
For a closer look at the Liberty Avenue billboard and the initial coverage, head to the Pittsburgh Business Times. Shoppers who want the latest details straight from the source can keep an eye on the East Liberty listing on The Fresh Market site.
