Giant Heirloom Market shutters in Market East amid development shakeups along Market Street
The boutique supermarket closed its doors permanently on Saturday.
The Giant Heirloom supermarket in Market East closed its doors for good over the holidays, ending the grocer’s gamble on the rapidly developing Center City neighborhood.
The market, located at 801 Market St. on the ground floor of the former Strawbridge’s department store, shuttered on Saturday.
The 32,000-square-foot location was Philadelphia’s largest Giant Heirloom — the company’s spin-off brand offering organic foods, beer on-tap, and partnerships with local suppliers — when it opened in December 2021.
Giant executives were hopeful that the city’s post-pandemic recovery and Center City’s growing residential population would buoy the Heirloom’s success.
But while Giant has not offered any specifics as to why the store failed, president John Ruane said in December the store had not performed to the company’s expectations.
The closure comes amid a time of flux for the Market East neighborhood.
The Giant Heirloom location was connected to the Fashion District, where a portion of the shopping mall is slated to become the site of the Philadelphia 76ers new arena after City Council approved the $1.3 billion project shortly before the new year.
Meanwhile, the city is aiming to revamp the bustling Market Street business corridor in anticipation of droves of new visitors for both the nation’s 250-year anniversary celebration and FIFA World Cup matches in 2026.
The plan includes a $16 million renovation project along Market Street in Old City between Second and Sixth Streets — just blocks east of the now-shuttered Heirloom.
Realty Income Trust, the San Diego-based commercial real estate company that purchased the bottom-floor retail space rented by Giant in 2022, did not return a request for comment, and it’s unclear whether the company has a new tenant lined up.
The closure came even as grocery stores continue to expand in Greater Center City.
Since 2011, 18 supermarkets opened between Girard Avenue and Tasker Street, according to a report from the Center City District, and five more are expected before the year’s end.
“The news is undeniably disappointing for a corridor that has long struggled to stabilize and transform,” the group wrote in a November report of the Heirloom location’s closure, which was announced that month.
The report called the shuttering an “exception” amid investment and expansion elsewhere.
Some of that investment comes from Giant itself, which operates nine supermarkets throughout the city and recently opened a new, 40,000 square-foot location at South Broad and Carpenter Streets.