H Mart plans 100,000-square-foot Fremont flagship, positioning it as the chain’s largest U.S. store

A major new-format grocery project is slated for Fremont’s Pacific Commons

H Mart, the Korean-American supermarket chain known for a broad range of Asian groceries and prepared foods, has announced plans to build its largest U.S. store in Fremont. The proposed flagship would span about 100,000 square feet across two stories at Pacific Commons Shopping Center, a large retail complex off Interstate 880 in the East Bay.

The project is described as the company’s biggest investment to date and is expected to introduce a new multi-level store model for the brand. Construction is expected to begin in late 2026, while an opening date has not been released.

A “destination” concept that extends beyond traditional grocery retail

Plans call for a food hall designed to combine fast-casual counters with full-service dining, along with a bar and additional entertainment components. The concept reflects a continuing shift among large-format grocers toward experiential offerings intended to increase dwell time and diversify revenue beyond packaged goods.

The project is being framed as a reuse of a large, existing retail footprint at Pacific Commons, aligning with broader efforts by Bay Area cities and shopping center operators to fill vacancies created by changes in big-box retail.

How the Fremont store fits into H Mart’s Bay Area footprint

The Fremont location would expand a regional network that already includes H Mart stores in San Francisco and San Jose, with a long-planned Dublin store still in development. City updates on the Dublin project have pointed to extensive building upgrades required for food-service components, with the most recent target indicating an opening sometime in 2026.

In San Francisco, H Mart opened a high-profile store in 2021 at Oceanview Village Shopping Center in the city’s southwest. In 2024, H Mart bought that shopping center for about $37 million, a transaction that signaled a longer-term real estate commitment in the city and drew attention in local commercial property circles.

Competitive context: the Bay Area’s accelerating Asian-grocery expansion

The Fremont announcement lands amid a wider wave of Asian grocery growth across the region, including new stores, expansions, and hybrid food-hall concepts. Recent plans and openings have included:

• New large-format Korean grocery proposals and openings in the Peninsula and South Bay, including a roughly 50,000-square-foot Mega Mart site in East Palo Alto.
• Additional cross-border entrants, including a planned T&T Supermarket location in San Francisco slated for late 2026.

Together, these projects underscore intensifying competition for shoppers seeking specialized produce, seafood, prepared foods, and imported pantry staples—while also reflecting how retail landlords and cities are increasingly using food-centered anchors to stabilize shopping centers and redevelop vacant big-box space.