Fast-growing Korean grocery chain H Mart is opening its biggest U.S. store yet in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The 100,000-square-foot, two-story H Mart is debuting the chain’s new “multilevel prototype” featuring restaurants, a bar and a food hall as well as its massive supermarket in a shopping center in the northern Silicon Valley town of Fremont, California. Developer Vestar, which manages the Pacific Commons Shopping Center where the H Mart will be located, said the store represents the chain’s biggest investment ever. Construction is slated to begin late this year.
The store’s food hall will offer a mix of fast-casual eateries, sit-down restaurants, a bar and entertainment offerings, creating a “vibrant immersive destination that goes far beyond a traditional grocery experience,” according to the release.
The Bay Area has been a key market for growing Asian specialty supermarket chains that have helped breathe life back into the region’s retail economy since the COVID-19 pandemic hit foot traffic and deals. Lyndhurst, New Jersey-based H Mart, the nation’s biggest Asian grocery chain, has become known for its combination of imported pantry staples, prepared foods and specialty items from Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisines, as well as fresh produce, meat and fish and more.
“We strive to enrich lives through our Asian heritage, food, and culture, and this new location represents a bold new chapter for us,” said H Mart President Brian Kwon in a statement. “Our priority is to provide the Fremont community with a convenient ‘one-stop shopping’ experience.”
H Mart opened its first store in 1982 in Woodside, Queens, in New York when South Korean immigrant Il Yeon Kwon opened a small corner store. The chain now bills itself as the largest international supermarket chain in the country, operating more than 100 outlets from California to New York, as well as stores in Canada and the United Kingdom.
More than a store
It has continued to expand in the past two years, debuting new stores in Orange County, California, and the Koreatown section of Dallas, as well as Las Vegas and Seattle in 2025.
In 2024, it opened a food hall — its largest one in the Northeast — at the American Dream megamall in New Jersey. That same year, the chain also paid $37 million for the Oceanview Village Shopping Center that houses its San Francisco store, which drew long lines when it opened in 2021.
Pacific Commons Shopping Center is owned by Heitman, a global real estate investment firm. Phoenix-based Vestar said the outdoor mall has some 55 retailers and restaurants including Target, Costco, T.J. Maxx, Nordstrom Rack and Sephora. H Mart is slated to occupy a space at the mall formerly occupied by Kohl’s, which announced in early 2025 that it was shuttering 27 underperforming locations, including the Fremont store.
Fremont is a diverse city long known for its sprawling Tesla factory and its off-the-beaten-path Asian food. It has carved out a reputation for itself as a national center for factories making the hardware that underpins artificial intelligence and other expanding 21st-century technologies.
Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan said in a statement that the store is an “innovative reuse of a vacant large-format retail space” that he said reflects the city’s “strategic commitment to reimagining vacant commercial properties into destinations that generate jobs, amenities, and lasting community value.”
Last year’s opening of Jagalchi, a Korean megamarket named for the country’s largest seafood market, at the site of a shuttered JCPenney store in Daly City, just south of San Francisco, sparked a marked jump in foot traffic, according to tracking firm Placer.ai.
Some of the Asian supermarkets proliferating in the Bay Area have become known as much more than grocery stores. The Filipino supermarket chain Seafood City’s store in Daly City, just south of San Francisco, hosts “Late Night Madness” events with specialty food, live DJs, karaoke and dancing celebrating Filipino heritage.
Another Korean chain, Mega Mart, opened a few months ago in East Palo Alto. In addition to fresh baked goods and a large selection of Korean beauty products, it’s home to the first location of Pogu Picnic, a fast-casual restaurant from Jagalchi executive chef Tony Yoo, the first chef in Korea to win a Michelin star. Japanese market Tokyo Central is slated to open before the end of the month at the Bay Street Emeryville mall, with Japanese groceries, snacks and prepared foods like sushi. It also promises to feature an “upscale” Japanese restaurant.
The next batch of Asian grocery stores set to open throughout the Bay Area in 2026 includes multiple outposts of Canada’s T&T Supermarket and Osaka Marketplace.