GREAT STUFF. The new Festival Foods will be their first location in C.F., a city once home to the grocery store chain Gordy's County Market. (Submitted photo)

A popular grocery store chain will expand into Chippewa Falls soon.

Wangard Partners, a Milwaukee-based full-service real estate development firm, announced Thursday the sale of a 7.4-acre site in Chippewa Falls to Festival Foods.

Festival plans to start building a store on the site in the spring of 2023 and to open it later that year.

“We are very excited to have Festival Foods as the anchor for our Chippewa Crossing development," said Stewart Wangard, CEO and chairman of the board. “Festival Foods is a very successful, Wisconsin-based grocery brand, and their presence in Chippewa Falls will be an impactful option for the community.”

Wangard’s Chippewa Crossing development encompasses approximately 60 acres at the intersection of Seymour Cray Sr. Boulevard and Chippewa Crossing Boulevard on the east side of Chippewa Falls. Festival purchased approximately 7.4 acres on the east end of the site. Wangard retains outlots to the east and north of the Festival Foods site, which are being marketed to retail users.

Wangard said that his firm is in discussions with a number of interested parties to locate on the site. “We anticipate that the Festival Foods announcement will only increase the already strong interest that we are receiving,” he said.

Currently, the only two major grocery retailers in Chippewa Falls are the Family Fare Supermarket and Sokup’s Market.

The city was the original home of Gordy’s County Market, a once large presence in the Chippewa Valley grocery market, but it went under a few years ago, closing all of its locations in Wisconsin.

For more information visit festfoods.com.