The old Stop & Shop plaza at 41 Alvord Lane in Stamford just changed hands for $25.5 million, and property records point to a familiar name in Asian grocery retail: H Mart. The sale, finalized last month, has triggered fresh speculation that Connecticut could finally land one of the chain's sprawling supermarkets, though no store opening has been confirmed.
According to CT Insider, the buyer is a limited liability company whose address matches H Mart's corporate office in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, based on Stamford property records. The reporting, authored by Alexander Soule with contributions from Robert Marchant and prior work by Shaniece Harper, Paul Schott and Luther Turmelle, notes that an H Mart representative could not be reached for comment. The shuttered grocery site sits just off West Main Street, across from a ShopRite, and the building contains just over 82,000 square feet of space.
City Officials Call It a Big Win — If It Happens
Stamford Economic Development Director Leah Kagan confirmed H Mart's purchase and called it a very exciting opportunity for local residents if the company opens a store there, per the same CT Insider report. Kagan said people travel to H Mart, and landing a Stamford location would be a huge win for the city. Stop & Shop closed its store at the site in 2024, leaving the plaza vacant for roughly two years before the sale.
H Mart describes itself as the largest Asian supermarket chain in the United States, and the chain focuses on South Korean products alongside a broader selection of Asian groceries. As of Tuesday morning, H Mart had listed no Connecticut job openings, the CT Insider article noted, and the company has given no public timeline for Stamford. That caution echoes how H Mart has handled other recent property deals: a similarly quiet acquisition in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, left locals guessing for months.
A Pattern of Quiet Real Estate Moves
H Mart-linked GSC RE Lansdale LLC acquired the Hillcrest Shopping Center in Lansdale in a bankruptcy sale for about $12 million, with Montgomery County property records showing the purchase closed on February 12, 2026, according to northpennnow.com. That roughly 12-acre, 150,000-square-foot shopping center is split between two main buildings, but no formal plans, site applications or timelines were publicly announced there either, and H Mart told the Korean Philadelphia Times at the time there was nothing to announce. The outlet also reported H Mart operates more than 90 locations across the country.
On the West Coast, an entity led by H Mart CEO Il Yeon Kwon purchased a decommissioned Kohl's store at 43782 Christy Street in Fremont, California, for $18.3 million in an all-cash deal, as reported by The Real Deal. That 98,000-square-foot retail property is being converted into an H Mart store under construction that will span more than 100,000 square feet. The outlet noted that H Mart's first East Bay store is slated to open in Dublin, north of Fremont.
What H Mart Could Mean for Stamford Shoppers
H Mart currently has 110 stores, per the CT Insider report, with locations throughout the metropolitan New York City region. The chain's nearest Connecticut-adjacent store sits in Hartsdale, New York, one of two Westchester County locations alongside a Yonkers store; those two outlets listed hourly wages starting as high as $22.10 in 2025. For scale, H Mart's store at the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, runs just 35,000 square feet, meaning a Stamford location in the 82,000-square-foot former Stop & Shop space would dwarf it.
The company has kept up a brisk pace of openings elsewhere, having opened its newest location in a former Kroger building in Sugar Land, Texas, this month. Stamford's grocery landscape has shifted quickly in recent months: ShopRite opened this month at Stop & Shop's former Newtown Road store in Danbury, DeCicco & Sons made its Connecticut debut in Greenwich's Glenville neighborhood in September, and the former Fairway Market in Stamford is being fitted out as a Mom's Organic Market alongside several other tenants. Stamford officials have also floated the idea of tax incentives to attract grocery stores to some neighborhoods, including downtown.
