The building that once housed defunct toy store chain Toys R Us and then a furniture retailer in Wilmington is expected to get new life as an international grocery store.

The owners of Tropicana Supermarkets bought 4510 Oleander Drive, previously occupied by Kimbrell's Furniture, for $5.4 million in April, according to tax records. Kimbrell's had purchased the nearly 45,000-square-foot building for $4.45 million in 2019.

The story of Tropicana Supermarkets began more than 20 years ago. A few years after Felipe Gutierrez, a native of the Dominican Republic, moved to North Carolina around 2006, he opened his first Tropicana Supermarket in Clinton. 

Over the years, he opened more stores throughout the state selling Hispanic food items, as well as those of other nationalities, with family members as partners. The Wilmington store will be the family's sixth Tropicana Supermarket, said Christopher Gutierrez.

A partner in the Wilmington store and son of Felipe Gutierrez, Christopher Gutierrez, said his company does not yet have a timeline for opening the Oleander Drive store, but they are excited about the location.

"Wilmington has always been on the radar for years now, and we had always gotten tips from vendors trying to get us to go out there," he said, "but we never really found the right opportunity."

They initially decided to open a store in Leland "because we had found a spot out there that looked good, and then this opportunity presented itself with the building out there on Oleander."

The Wilmington store will have a multitude of offerings, including various types of produce and unique brands from Honduras, El Salvador, Jamaica and elsewhere in the world, Christopher Gutierrez said.

The partners plan to use at least 30,000 square feet for the Wilmington Tropicana Supermarket and expect to partition about 6,500 square feet to lease to other businesses, he said.

Keith Austin of Wilmington-based commercial real estate firm Cape Fear Commercial represented the sellers in the sale of 4510 Oleander Drive, where the Toys R Us closed in 2018.