Sprouts Farmers Market to anchor Champion’s new Glendora shopping center

Champion Real Estate Company is turning a formerly vacant grocery store in Glendora into a new Sprouts Farmers Market.

Champion started construction Tuesday on the 30,000-square-foot market at 655 S. Grand Avenue, which is slated to open in May. The property was previously home to a Ralph’s grocery store.

The Sprouts deal is part of a larger $32 million plan to redevelop the 85,615-square-foot San Gabriel Valley property into a smaller 70,500-square-foot neighborhood shopping center.

Champion secured tenants for 93 percent of the space, from retailers including Marshalls and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, according to a release from JLL.

The project is slated for completion in July.

Shauna Mattis, Elizabeth Hewson and Blake Kaplan of JLL are the leasing agents. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment on rents at the property.

Sprouts has been among the nation’s fastest growing grocery concepts. The Arizona-based company opened 36 new stores during the fiscal year 2016, bringing its total to 253 stores in 13 states as of January 1, according to public filings.