Business Intel: Another site for Lidl sold away | Business Local

Lidl, a discount grocer that unveiled its first U.S. stores in 2017, had been eyeing Roanoke and Christiansburg for some of its earliest locations but halted work in the summer of that year and never resumed.

In April, it sold a 4.74-acre parcel on Williamson Road in Roanoke County, where it had initially planned to build two stores.

The property was snapped up for $2.1 million, according to an announcement from real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield — Thalhimer, which represented LIDL US Operations LLC in the deal.

The site, located in Hollins at 7300 Williamson Road, is now set to be the home of a new Hyundai dealership and service center.

The dealership, a project of the Southern Team Automotive Group, will span more than 30,000 square feet and offer a two-story showroom as well as the ability to service new models of Hyundai’s electric vehicles.

The dealership project was announced in March. The land sale closed on April 8.

This is the second local property Lidl has sold, according to online real estate records. The Christiansburg site it purchased on North Franklin Street changed hands in 2020.

The grocery chain still owns a 5.9-acre site at the corner of Valley Gateway Boulevard and Challenger Avenue in Roanoke County that it purchased in 2016.

The company also had a contract on a site in Salem but land records indicate that sale never closed.

Lidl declined to comment at the time on its changing plans for individual locations but has since gone on to open several U.S. stores with the nearest being in Danville and Charlottesville.

The company’s dive into the U.S. market came as Aldi, also a German-based discount grocer, was working to boost its own stateside footprint.

Aldi is now aiming to become the nation’s third-largest grocery chain, behind Walmart and Kroger, by the end of this year. It opened in Roanoke in 2015, and in Christiansburg in 2018.

Contact Alicia Petska at [email protected]