(Updated at 2:25 p.m.) The mystery on Crystal Drive is now solved. A new grocery store that’s been under construction in Crystal City is set to be an Amazon Fresh, a company spokesperson confirmed to ARLnow.
First announced in 2020 as a “specialty grocery store,” the large retail space at 1550 Crystal Drive has been somewhat-secretly transforming for more than a year into an Amazon-owned store. But the company has kept mum about its Amazon Fresh plans in Arlington until now.
“I can confirm Amazon will open an Amazon Fresh grocery store in Arlington, VA on Crystal Drive,” an Amazon spokesperson told ARLnow in a statement. “In addition to traditional checkouts, this store will also have Just Walk Out technology, which gives customers the option to skip the checkout line.”
The new store will also have anti-graffiti window film, according to building permits. The spokesperson could not provide an expected opening date.
Amazon and property owner JBG Smith previously declined to confirm or comment on what was coming to the retro-looking ground floor storefront along Crystal Drive despite obvious clues, like permits describing “a new retail shop providing packaged salads, sandwiches, entrees, soups & various beverages [and] self app check-out.”
Crystal City technically has been without a grocery store for more than 15 years, ever since Safeway closed in 2005. There are Harris Teeter stores in Pentagon City and Potomac Yard and an Amazon-owned Whole Foods in Pentagon City, next to the under-construction HQ2. And, less than two miles away, there will be another Amazon Fresh in Potomac Yard which was announced this past spring.
The company is quickly expanding its grocery footprint across the D.C. area, with stores in Franconia and Chevy Chase having both opened since July. There are also more on the way.
That could include another Arlington Amazon Fresh.
The approaching redevelopment of Fillmore Gardens Shopping Center on Columbia Pike into “The Elliott” will come with 50,000 square feet of ground floor retail, a revamped CVS, and a grocery store. There are rumors that this grocery store will also be an Amazon Fresh, but so far no confirmation.
“Amazon doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation,” the company spokesperson said.