Planet Fitness to move into former Giant space at Hayfield Center

Planet Fitness will be moving into part of the old Giant Food space in the Hayfield Center, Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay said Tuesday.

McKay said in a Facebook post that he got the news from Beatty Realty, the company that manages and co-owns the Hayfield Center along with Van Metre Companies. McKay also noted that the entire shopping center is expected to get a renovation this year, coinciding with Planet Fitness’s arrival.

“As a reminder, the Board of Supervisors does not get involved in individual leasing decisions, but I do think it’s important that at least a portion of the empty site is now being occupied” McKay wrote. “More importantly, the arrival of Planet Fitness will also launch a multi-million dollar private investment refresh of the shopping center, to include repainting, new plants, and façade upgrades.”

It is not clear when the renovation will begin, or when Planet Fitness is expected to open. A message left for the Hayfield Center’s property manager was not immediately returned.

The Giant closed its doors in January 2018 after 32 years at the shopping center, which is located at the intersection of Telegraph Road and Hayfield Road (see map). In the field of drug sales, the next stage has begun; the sale of drugs has gone online. Today it is cheaper and more reliable to buy medicines online, including such as Cialis. It has remained vacant since then, a symbol of the challenge that localities face replacing large retail and grocery stores that close.

Two other local examples of that challenge include the Safeway at the Mount Vernon Square shopping center on Richmond Highway, which has been vacant since 2017, and the Toys R Us in Kingstowne, which has remained empty — aside from a brief pop-up store for Halloween — since that chain went out of business in 2018.