A building permit filed in Fairfax County on Tuesday reveals that Aldi is in line to take over the former Amazon Fresh space at 9409 Lorton Market Street, converting the shuttered 38,741-square-foot grocery box inside Lorton Marketplace. The filing calls for exterior facade updates along with mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and structural renovations, signaling that physical work on the conversion is already underway in planning terms.
The permit was first reported by Washington Business Journal, whose managing editor Michael Neibauer detailed the filing as the latest sign of commercial re-tenanting at the South Fairfax County shopping center. The same report notes that standard Aldi stores typically run between 15,000 and 20,000 square feet, which is roughly half the size of the Lorton storefront, making it likely the space will eventually be subdivided for additional tenants.
A Vacancy Born From Amazon's Retreat
The Lorton location has sat empty since Amazon closed its Amazon Fresh store there in January as part of a shutdown of all 10 Greater Washington locations, a pullback that eliminated more than 1,400 regional jobs, including 691 retail positions across five Northern Virginia stores in Fairfax, Franconia, Lorton, Alexandria, and Falls Church, per the same report. The closures were part of a nationwide decision by Amazon to shut down all physical Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores after concluding the concepts lacked the right economic model for large-scale expansion, as detailed by Northern Virginia Magazine. Instead, the company shifted its physical retail ambitions toward expanding Whole Foods Market.
The Lorton site has a long history of anchor turnover even before Amazon arrived. The storefront previously housed a Shoppers Food Warehouse until that store closed in early 2020, after which Amazon filed permits in May 2021 to redevelop the space for its grocery concept, according to a 2021 Washington Business Journal report. Lorton Marketplace itself is a 135,899-square-foot retail center owned by Jacksonville, Florida-based Regency Centers Corp., which operates multiple grocery-anchored strip centers across the Metro DC area.
Why Discount Grocers See Opportunity In South County
Commercial demographic data from Regency Centers shows why the Lorton market remains attractive to grocers despite Amazon's exit. The three-mile radius around Lorton Marketplace holds an estimated population of 59,076 residents with an average household income of $192,633, a combination that tends to support strong retail demand.
The Lorton filing also fits into Aldi's much larger national ambitions. In March 2024, the discount chain launched a five-year, $9 billion expansion strategy aiming to open 800 new U.S. stores by the end of 2028 through a mix of new builds and conversions of existing second-generation retail boxes, according to Grocery Dive. Discount grocers have been aggressively expanding their footprints even as some traditional and tech-driven store formats consolidate or disappear.
Backfilling a Regionwide Pattern of Empty Boxes
Lorton is far from the only former Amazon Fresh site drawing new interest from grocers. Landlords across Greater Washington have moved quickly to backfill shuttered Amazon Fresh locations, including signing international grocer New Grand Mart to take over a former Amazon Fresh box in Manassas in late 2025, the Business Journal reported in February. That pattern echoes similar re-tenanting moves Hoodline has tracked elsewhere, including a Whole Foods move into Macomb County at a site that had been presumed to be an Amazon Fresh location, although the Amazon Fresh project never materialized there, and a Ross Dress for Less deal slated for a long-empty Braintree, Massachusetts space.
Whatever Aldi decides to do with the rest of the Lorton box, the discount grocer will be entering South Fairfax County. Aldi's arrival would add a discount option to a corridor still adjusting to Amazon's abrupt departure from physical grocery retail.
