Country’s Largest H Mart Coming to Fremont

Details around H Mart’s plans for a shuttered Kohl’s building in Fremont are beginning to surface.

The Asian grocery giant is planning to build a flagship store at 43782 Christy Street that the company hopes will serve as a prototype for future H Mart locations, the Mercury News reported. Once complete, the H Mart will span about 100,000 square feet, making it the largest H Mart outpost in the United States.

H Mart’s Fremont location will operate across two levels and include a food hall and dine-in restaurants as well as its usual grocery offerings, the company and Vestar said, according to the Mercury News. Vestar manages the Pacific Commons Shopping Center where the store will rise. The complex is owned by Heitman.

“The ground floor will feature the grocery store, while the second floor will include a food hall, bar, restaurant and communal spaces,” Carli Richards, a spokesperson for Vestar, told the Mercury News.

Last month, an East Coast group tied to H Mart CEO Il Yeon Kwon emerged as the buyer of the closed Kohl’s location, spending $18.3 million in an all-cash deal for the property, below the building’s assessed value of $26.1 million. Construction on the store is expected to begin by the end of this year.

By implementing an “innovative reuse of a vacant large-format retail space,” H Mart is part of Fremont’s story of companies “reimagining vacant commercial properties into destinations that generate jobs, amenities and lasting community value,” Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan said of the development. When complete, it will be the second H Mart store in the East Bay.

H Mart broke into the Northern California market in 2017 with the opening of a San Jose location. A second San Jose location opened the following year, and a San Francisco H Mart started welcoming customers in 2021. The company’s first East Bay store is in the works in Dublin, though its debut has been delayed and an opening date is yet to be determined.

— Chris Malone Méndez