Aisle 24, a fully-automated, 24/7 cashier-less grocery chain based in Toronto, will be opening later this summer its latest location in The Well, a massive mixed use development in downtown Toronto.
“We are excited to welcome Aisle 24 to the 320,000 square feet of reimagined retail and food service concepts at The Well. The innovative, convenient approach to food shopping that Aisle 24 offers will serve tens of thousands of residents living at The Well and in the surrounding community and is an excellent addition to the innovative retailer offering at this world-class mixed-use property,” said Oliver Harrison, SVP Leasing and Tenant Experience at RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, which is developing the project with Allied.
The real estate transaction was facilitated by Oberfeld Snowcap.
John Douang, Co-Founder & CEO of Aisle 24, said he expects the store to open in late summer.
“I just love The Well concept – the live, work, play. And I think it’s going to be a really bustling, vibrant community. So it’s perfect for Aisle 24,” he said.
“What we were keen on there was to ensure that we could operate as we normally do in a 24-hour environment. There were some challenges on the interior side so we wanted to make sure that we chose the right unit for us.
“This unit is probably a little bit on the upper average size that we go with of about 1,700 square feet. But because it’s going to be a corporate store – one that we are the corporate owner and operate ourselves – we’re going to go fairly unique in terms of the design of this. We’re looking at options to include some local artists into the design of the space but the demographics there are just exactly what we need.”
The Well is a massive 7.8 acre site in downtown Toronto which will be home to about 1.2 million square feet of office space and 1.5 million square feet of residential space including 1,700 condominium and purpose-built rental units. At the base of the project is a retail and foodservice offering that will also include a massive 70,000 square foot multi-tenant food market that is expected to become a significant attraction.
Douang said Aisle 24 has just over 20 locations and there’s about 30 in various stages of leasing and construction currently across Canada.
The ones currently in place are primarily in Ontario and Quebec.
He said the concept has the potential to grow to “several hundred” locations across Canada.
“That’s our goal and I think over the long term even more just in the way we can really scale the sizing as needed per community really allows us to enter into markets that wouldn’t support a traditional convenient store grocery business,” said Douang.
“We’re getting interest all across Canada and even in remote regions too. We are working very diligently in a special project in Happy Valley Goose Bay Labrador of all places.”
He said the brand’s community format stores are just over 1,000 square feet.
“When we look at a site we will always look at a demographic report and really dig into the details of density of population, median income, what they’re spending on. All that type of information that we gather to make an assessment as to what size would work best for us,” said Douang.
“But it does seem like we’re trending more on the 1,500 square feet plus size. Most availability that we’re seeing is around 1,500 to 2,000 square feet.
“Our real estate strategy has always been bringing that convenience to the customer. So that typically takes shape in being positioned close to where they live. We want to be that go-to so that when you’re at home and you need something, you can quickly pop down to an Aisle 24. So we’re always looking at the ground level of condominiums and mixed-use communities and this is why The Well was so attractive to us.”
Aisle 24 began in 2016 with its first location at Centennial College in Toronto.
