Smyrna Gets Rutherford County’s First Kroger Marketplace
Smyrna now has the first Kroger Marketplace in Rutherford County. The Town celebrated the opening in late October at the 123,000-square-foot store, which sits less than three miles from Interstate 24 near Lee Victory Parkway and Bulldog Drive.
The “Marketplace” label matters. A Kroger Marketplace is a larger format than a standard supermarket: it sells groceries, fresh food and household essentials, and it also stocks a wider range of general merchandise that can include clothing, home goods, kitchenware, electronics and toys. For shoppers on this side of the county, that adds a larger store close to the interstate.
Town leaders congratulated Kroger for choosing Smyrna, and the company marked the opening with a $5,000 donation to Smyrna High School. The school's neighbor is the new store: the plaza sits beside the campus, which is why Bulldog Drive, the street that serves both, has been part of the story from the start.
More businesses are coming to the site
The Kroger is not the only piece of the project. The development includes six outlots meant for additional businesses and roughly 10,000 square feet of retail space that is available to lease. More openings and ribbon cuttings could follow around the store. SmyrnaTN.com tracks them in the Ribbon Cuttings section.
The road to the plaza
Getting to the store has drawn attention because of its location next to a school. The Town asked the Tennessee Department of Transportation for a second entrance to the plaza from State Route 102, the road also known as Lee Victory Parkway. The state did not approve it. Its reasoning was that Lee Victory Parkway is a high-speed road built to move through traffic, not to handle vehicles slowing and stopping to turn into a shopping center, so it chose changes along Bulldog Drive and the school parking lot instead.
Those changes include widening Bulldog Drive from four lanes to six at its widest point, adding turn lanes and relocating some of the school's entrances and exits. Some neighbors have said they worry about the mix of shoppers and students on the same street, particularly when school lets out in the afternoon, and about the extra workload for the school's crossing guard.
What it means for Smyrna
For the Town, the opening is a retail milestone: a national grocer building its first Marketplace in the county here, with space left over for other businesses to follow. For drivers, the practical lesson is to expect more activity on Bulldog Drive around school arrival and dismissal times and to watch for the new turn lanes and entrances as the road work settles.
Check the latest Smyrna news for the businesses that open next to the store.
Image: illustrative, AI-generated – not the actual location.
