The heart of Town Center is chock-full of retail shops and restaurants, but grocery stores have remained on the fringes.

That's about to change. The Fresh Market will set up shop next year at Pembroke Mall in the northwest corner of the Sears building. The store will open in April, Ramsay Smith, president of Pembroke Commercial Realty, confirmed Tuesday.

The upscale grocery chain will fill a niche for specialty household food items in Town Center's steadily growing residential community.

It's one of several new stores coming to the mall. Sears is currently downsizing its presence at the corner of Virginia Beach and Independence boulevards and will lease portions of its space to Nordstrom Rack and shoe retailer DSW, along with the grocer.

REI, an outdoor apparel and equipment company, announced earlier this year that it will open a store in a freestanding building on Independence Boulevard at the site of the former Sears Automotive building.

The Pembroke Fresh Market will join two others in the region - one at Virginia Beach's Hilltop and the other on 21st Street in Norfolk.

The Fresh Market has 174 stores in 27 states. Its signature is offering soft lighting, classical music and rustic decor. Customers take a number to select meat and seafood from the butcher.

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com