Empire Foods Celebrates ‘Remarkable’ Opening at Former Brooklyn Center Walmart Site
Cymbals crashed and drums pounded as two dragons danced and thrashed across the floor of Empire Foods, celebrating the opening of Brooklyn Center’s newest ethnic grocery store.
It’s located in the city’s former Walmart building at 1200 Shingle Creek Crossing.
The retail giant shuttered its doors in Brooklyn Center last April.
Now, almost a year later, Empire Foods has taken its place.
In late December 2023, the owners of Sun Foods — Sun Empire — bought the vacant building for $8.1 million.
“It’s been a long time,” Empire Foods owner Thang Ku told CCX News. “It took about three to four months to figure out this project. And it took a lot of labor too, and work. And a lot of work to set up and make sure we do it right.”
Ku and his family are excited to show off the new store to the community.
“We need them to come here because we’ve got a good price here,” Ku said. “We’ve got the best price in town and we’ve got a special discount, on-sale every week, every month to support and help the neighborhood and community.”
The ribbon-cutting ceremony at Empire Foods in Brooklyn Center. The new grocery store is located in the former Brooklyn Center Walmart.
It’s a huge operation, with aisles upon aisles of groceries, produce and housewares.
“There’s no store to compare to this store,” Ku said. “And no size to compare to the size of this store in [the] Twin Cities.”
Many of the grocery offerings, like wild boar or boiled duck eggs, would be hard to find at another shopping center, said Ku.
Brooklyn Center city officials said it’s important to have a variety of food options for residents.
“Brooklyn Center is the most diverse city in the state of Minnesota, and so having a spot like this one open up that’s a little bit more geared culturally is significant,” said Joe Cardoza, spokesperson for the city of Brooklyn Center. “Not just for the residents, but for the larger community in the state of Minnesota. They have a place to come to, they have a place to take advantage of and a place that feels like home.”
The store also offers bulk shopping. Wholesale boxes are stacked up on pallets across roughly half the building.
With something new to offer, city officials say they’re excited for the future.
“We’re definitely impressed,” Cardoza said. “This space is over 180,000 square-feet. It’s not easy to fill up. And the fact that this was turned around in less than a year, stocked up and ready to go — I mean, it’s remarkable.”
Other Shingle Creek Crossing Developments
Jacksonville, Fla.,-based Gatlin Development Co. operates Shingle Creek Crossing. In addition to Empire Foods moving in, city officials says Dos Hermanos Mexican Grill & Bar has signed a lease for the former Applebee’s location. That would put the shopping center’s vacancy rate at roughly 5 percent, said Ginny McIntosh, city planner.
McIntosh said there is a proposal coming to fill the former Discount Tire space. Pollo Campero, a fast-casual Guatemalan restaurant, is also planned for a site at 1340 Shingle Creek Crossing.
Just outside Shingle Creek Crossing, the city approved plans for a state of Minnesota DVS inspection station to replace the former Big O Tires.
