Rockville Wegmans installs seating for outdoor dining (Photos)

The new Wegmans grocery store at 1590 Rockville Pike continues to prepare for its opening next month. Furniture has now been installed on an outdoor dining patio, with seating and umbrellas for those enjoying takeaway foods from the store in the fresh air of the Pike. Menu items will include sushi, pizza, chef-made salads, and sandwiches. Wegmans is scheduled to open on June 25, 2025.

Signage installed at Wegmans in Rockville (Photos)

Here's another "sign" that the opening of Wegmans at 1590 Rockville Pike in Rockville is fast approaching. A sign installation team affixed the large permanent Wegmans logo signage to the outside of the store Friday. The store is scheduled to open a little over two months from now, on June 25, 2025. Wegmans will be the anchor of the new Twinbrook Quarter development.

Rockville Wegmans signage installed + a sneak peek inside (Photos)

Permanent signage has been installed on the exterior of the future Wegmans grocery store at 1590 Rockville Pike, at the new Twinbrook Quarter development. It includes a sign for the store's Market Cafe. Some new "coming soon" window screens also say, "We are so grateful to be a part of your neighborhood." A peek inside (see photo at bottom) shows that a significant amount of shelving and refrigerated cases is now in place. The signage will serve more as an attention-getter for now, as the store's official opening date remains more than three months away.

Rockville Wegmans mailing out job offers ahead of June opening (Photos)

The new Wegmans at 1590 Rockville Pike is recruiting employees in Montgomery County ahead of its scheduled June 25, 2025 opening at the Twinbrook Quarter development. Wegmans is sending postcards to some number of Montgomery County residents inviting them to "join our Rockville team," and readers in Rockville and beyond report having received them. All are residents within the County.

Wegmans' postcards tout an $18-an-hour starting salary, flexible schedules, benefit packages, and opportunities for educational and career advancement. Perhaps the New York-based grocery chain is hoping to reach federal employees who have been laid off, but it's very rare to see unsolicited "help wanted" literature being mailed out like this. 

Wegmans Effect: Rockville Safeway store closing before nearby Wegmans even opens (Photos)

The Rockville Wegmans hasn't even opened yet, and the competition is already starting to move out of town. Safeway at 1800 Rockville Pike is closing, and a closing sale is underway, according to a sign posted at the supermarket. That Safeway is only a couple of blocks south of the future Wegmans store, which is opening later this year at the new Twinbrook Quarter development. Don't expect massive savings, as the closing sale is currently touting only 30%-off "selected merchandise," meaning most of the store's inventory is likely to be transferred to other local Safeways or other Albertsons-owned stores.

This Safeway was so new that there is probably very little nostalgia about the store, compared to the Veirs Mill Road Twinbrook Safeway it replaced last decade. Not only is Wegmans roaring into town, but Montgomery County's crime wave that is entering its fifth year was often in evidence at this Safeway. A number of assaults were reported at the store each of the last few years, in addition to the rampant shoplifting that has plagued nearly all retail businesses in the county this decade. 

When this store closes, there will be two Safeway stores left in Rockville, at the Rock Creek Village Center and at the King Farm Village Center. If you get your prescriptions filled at this store, your file will be transferred to the Rock Creek Village Center Safeway pharmacy at 5510 Norbeck Road.

Rockville Wegmans now opening "late summer 2025"

The Wegmans store in Rockville is now anticipated to open in "late summer 2025," the company said in a job announcement linked to an online banner ad Friday. It is one of three Wegmans stores expected to open in the United States in 2025. Rockville's will be the smallest of the three at 80,000-square-feet, but will serve as the retail anchor of the new Twinbrook Quarter development. It appears it will not have the Market Cafe found in other, larger Wegmans locations, including the other two opening this year on Long Island and in Norwalk, Connecticut. 

Wegmans also announced that Rockville Wegmans customers will receive 90 minutes of free parking in the underground parking garage. Signage for the garage has already been installed.

Training for the more than 500 positions at the store is apparently quite intensive. It will begin long before the store opens, and will be conducted at an off-site location through June 2025. Some potential training locations for prospective Rockville Wegmans employees include the Wegmans stores in Frederick, Germantown, Woodmore, Washington, D.C., and Tysons, the company said. The Rockville Wegmans will be located at 1590 Rockville Pike, near the Twinbrook Metro station.

First Wegmans signage installed in Rockville

The first permanent signage for the future Wegmans grocery store has been installed at the Twinbrook Quarter development at 1600 Rockville Pike. It is at the entrance to the development's public parking garage on the new Festival Street. The garage lies beneath the Wegmans, a Class-A office building, and The Milton apartments. Wegmans itself is not expected to open until next year at the Saul Centers development, while the office space and apartments are now being marketed for lease.

Festival Street looking west toward
Rockville Pike and Congressional Plaza

Construction update on new Wegmans-anchored development in Rockville (Photos)

The opening of the new Wegmans grocery store at B.F. Saul's Twinbrook Quarter development on Rockville Pike at Halpine Road won't take place until sometime next year. But The Milton apartments upstairs in the development's Phase 1 building are now expected to welcome their first residents this fall. The leasing office is now open, and a website for The Milton is now active. Construction workers are finishing the upper level residential interiors, and completing punch lists of required items to meet the requirements for approval by code inspectors from the City of Rockville.

Halpine Road has been resurfaced to eliminate any construction-related scars or damage, with new medians and landscaping. Burial of fiber optic cables will now permit the sidewalks and tree planting to be completed. Speaking of sidewalks, a new multi-use path along Rockville Pike in front of the property is now visible in the photos below. In addition to the new traffic signals at Rockville Pike and newly-created Festival Street, traffic signals will also be installed at the intersection of Halpine and Chapman Avenue. B.F. Saul reports that, despite the recent drought, steady sun and the occasional rain shower have plantings in the central courtyard already growing.

The future Wegmans

New sign of progress on Wegmans-anchored development in Rockville

Another "sign" of the future Wegmans-anchored Twinbrook Quarter development has appeared on Rockville Pike. An interior street of the Saul Centers-developed property is now being established at its connection with the Pike (MD 355). It is named Festival Street.

Festival Street, located at the north end of Phase 1 of the project, now has traffic signals in place, and cross-street signage, over its intersection with Rockville Pike. When activated, the new signals will also regulate traffic from an entrance to Congressional Plaza across the street. Wegmans is scheduled to open next year at the development.