The long-awaited Urbana H Mart will celebrate its grand opening on Jan. 16.
The date was revealed today by Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin. Further details were not yet available.
The Urbana location will be the first in Illinois outside of Chicago for the popular Asian grocery store chain, which mainly operates in large cities and metropolitan areas.
The store is located on the south end of downtown Urbana, at 220 N. Broadway Avenue.
The opening date coincides with the start of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s spring semester. Students will return to campus from winter break that weekend, with the first day of classes on Tuesday, Jan. 21.
The store plans to have a hiring event on site. Job openings for the Urbana store are listed on the company’s website for both part-time and full-time store associates, posted as of today. Positions available include cashiers, customer service associates, merchandisers, and more.
The destination store will feature a large selection of multi-cultural grocery products, a sit-down food court with three authentic Asian cuisine restaurants, a bakery, beer and wine, home goods, and other items.
The project has been in motion since early 2023, when the City of Urbana announced that New Jersey- based H Mart had set its sights to transform the former Save-A-Lot grocery building. At the time, the goal was to open by the end of 2023. However, the project stalled.
In February of 2024, new renderings and updated plans were released with the target opening “sometime between 2024 and 2025.”
(This is a developing story, more information will be added as possible.)