February 10, 2025

The Smoothie Spot Chooses Gayton Crossing For Second Location In Greater Richmond Metropolitan Area

Also Covered By

BALTIMORE, MD (February 10, 2025) – Following their immediate success opening and operating a small smoothie café in a fitness center in Auburn, Maine, friends BJ Grondin and Jeremy and Maygan Callahan started thinking bigger and are now leveraging their experience with aggressive growth plans for the future. The group signed a lease with Continental Realty Corporation for 1,100 square feet of space with the intent of opening The Smoothie Spot at Gayton Crossing, a more than 160,000 square foot shopping center located at 9782 Gayton Road in Richmond’s West End area. The inaugural Virginia location for The Smoothie Spot began operations in Colonial Heights last year. CRC Leasing Manager Kristin Perry and S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co. represented the landlord and Taylor Long Properties represented the tenant in this transaction.

What separates The Smoothie Spot from other concepts in this rapidly-growing category, according to Senior Director of Operations Maygan Callahan, is its use of “all real fruit and food ingredients,” together with “the lack of any artificial sweetener agents, ice or water.” She added that “it was extremely important to offer healthy food options to the local community and prove that smoothies can taste amazing by using all-natural ingredients.”

Jeremy Callahan

The Smoothie Spot’s menu features classic smoothies including Mixed Berry, Peanut Butter Banana, Tropical and Mighty Green, with the latter made from sweet pineapple, green apple, kale, spinach, and avocado. Smoothie Bowl selections include Acai, Chocolate Peanut Butter, and Tropical, with daily specials available for both the smoothies and the bowls. A selection of sandwiches and a variety of toasts will also be available.

This was a case of “a friend doing anything for another friend,” explained Callahan. “BJ owns and operates the fitness center Prime360, and given his passion for health and fitness, he thought the next evolution of this concept was to add a healthy eating element. He solicited the help of Jeremy and me to fulfill his vision, and fitness center members, together with the local community, quickly embraced our product line. We were pleasantly surprised by the reaction and thought that maybe we were sitting on something bigger here.”

A job change for Jeremy Callahan necessitated a relocation to the Richmond area, but that did not stop the trio from taking The Smoothie Spot on the road and opening a second location. The Gayton Crossing site is expected to open in late February, but the ownership group is already scouting locations for stores four and five. Franchising the concept might also be in their future.

“We gravitated to Gayton Crossing because there are no other smoothie shops in the immediate vicinity, and we genuinely fell in love with the center’s atmosphere and tenant mix,” explained Callahan. “There are multiple strong traffic generators, including those that cater to young people, and we intend to become a destination as well.”

Delivered in 1981 and situated at the signalized intersection of Gaskins and Quioccasin roads in Henrico County, Gayton Crossing is shadow-anchored by the national supermarket chain Kroger and features more than 30 restaurants and retailers occupying inline spaces and five free-standing pad sites. Representative tenants include Bank of America, GOLD’S Gym, Goldfish Swim School, Jos. A. Bank, KidStrong, Starbucks Coffee, Virginia ABC store, and The UPS Store. The property contains eight means of ingress and egress and is surrounded by a free surface parking lot suitable for nearly 700 vehicles.

Continental Realty Corporation acquired the center last spring.

“The Smoothie Spot is a unique concept and we have found that adding local entrepreneurs to the tenant mix of our shopping centers provides differentiation and tremendous energy,” stated Kristina O’Keefe, Vice President of CRC’s Commercial Division. “We love the backstory of the ownership group and especially their focus on the use of all-natural ingredients throughout the menu. The café adds vibrancy and exemplifies our mission to showcase Gayton Crossing as a location where small businesses can thrive.”

More than 100,000 people reside within a five-mile radius of Gayton Crossing, including more than 75,000 households with an average household income exceeding $135,000. In addition, the daytime population within this same radius is nearly 235,000.

The median home value in Richmond’s West End is $520,000, and the existing residential pipeline is expected to add more than 1,500 homes within a five-mile radius of Gayton Crossing. Household incomes are projected to increase by more than 11 percent within a three-mile radius over the next five years.

The University of Richmond, with approximately 4,000 students, is situated in the West End and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), with its 30,000 undergraduates, is located approximately 10 miles from Gayton Crossing. Richmond’s central business district is 14 miles from the site and Richmond International Airport is 22 miles away.

Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland and founded in 1960, Continental Realty Corporation is a full-service commercial real estate and investment company focused on acquiring and operating retail and multifamily properties. The privately held firm owns and manages a diversified portfolio of retail centers consisting of approximately eight million square feet of commercial space and more than 10,000 apartment homes across 13 states, with a portfolio value exceeding $4 billion. For additional information, visit www.crcrealty.com.