Ospreys have nested on top of a parking-lot light pole at 93 Mathews Drive since 2012. Five years after they arrived, the store below them closed. In September, after that season's two young had fledged, crews removed the nest during parking-lot work for the store that finally replaced it.

The new store is a Food Lion. Across the intersection, in Sea Turtle Marketplace, sits Hilton Head's first Aldi. Together they make Mathews Drive the newest grocery corner on the island. Both stores also end long stretches of failed plans. One site was empty for close to nine years. The other spent years in a stop-and-start rebuild under a different name.

Nine Years of Plans at 93 Mathews Drive

The Port Royal Plaza building has a longer list of proposals than almost any commercial address on the island. Here is how the site got from big-box warehouse store to grocery store:

1. January 2017. Sam's Club closed its Hilton Head store on Jan. 17, two days before its new Bluffton store opened. At the time, the Island Packet reported that the Bluffton store was about twice the size of the island store.
2. 2019. Florida-based Bealls Inc. proposed putting two of its stores, Burke's Outlet and Home Centric, into the space.
3. A few years later. Go Store It planned a self-storage facility there, then withdrew the plan after pushback from the community and town officials.
4. Next came Lowes Foods. The Winston-Salem grocer filed plans for the space, but the Hilton Head store never happened.
5. February 2024. Hilton Head businessman J.R. Richardson bought the property for $5.8 million.
6. May 2025. Dill Dinkers Pickleball opened on part of the site.
7. Oct. 9, 2025. Food Lion and landlord Barony Fund I Investment LLC signed a 20-year memorandum of lease for a 41,000-square-foot store.
8. Nov. 11, 2026. The store's ribbon-cutting was set for 7:45 a.m.

Richardson's purchase is the point where the site's story started to change. The Island Packet described his Richardson Group as a Hilton Head stronghold. He developed the gated Windmill Harbour community on the Intracoastal Waterway and the South Carolina Yacht Club, and he opened Westbury Park in Bluffton and the pizza restaurant Local Pie. His father, James Norris "Big Daddy" Richardson, built the shopping center that became Coligny Plaza. After years of proposals from outside companies, a local owner finally took control of the building.

Food Lion Returns, Mid-Island This Time

This is Food Lion's second run on Hilton Head. The first store, at 40 Palmetto Bay Road on the south end, opened in May 1990. In early 2012, the North Carolina-based chain closed it as one of 113 underperforming stores.

The return is part of a regional push. In January, Food Lion announced plans for 10 new stores across the Carolinas by the end of 2026, including Hilton Head. This store is the chain's 22nd in the greater Savannah area.

The Island Packet's opening rundown lists what the 41,000-square-foot store offers:

• Hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Ready-to-eat meals and a self-service wing and hot bar
• Freshly made sushi and in-store fresh-cut fruit
• A walk-in garden cooler for produce
• Self-checkout lanes
• Grocery pickup and delivery
• Products from local growers and manufacturers

The 10 p.m. closing time stands out. Of the two Mathews Drive stores, Food Lion lists the later hours.

Across the Intersection, Pineland Station's Long Rebuild

The other side of the corner went through its own drawn-out redevelopment. Sea Turtle Marketplace used to be Pineland Station. In 2015, its developers announced the new name and a $20 million to $30 million redevelopment of the 40-year-old, 130,000-square-foot center, with demolition and renovation planned in phases.

That work stalled several times between 2015 and 2018. In May 2019 the center's owner filed for bankruptcy, and Greenberg Gibbons bought the property in 2022. Some pieces came together along the way. In April 2018 the Island Packet reported that a group of outparcel buildings was finished and businesses were moving in, while the rest of the center was still under construction.

As of October 2026, the center's tenants include:

• Shopping: HomeSense, PetSmart, West Marine, Golf Galaxy
• Food and coffee: Gusto Ristorante, Jersey Mike's, Starbucks, Parker's Kitchen
• Fitness and personal care: Orangetheory Fitness, Island Nails Spa, Tai Chi Massage Spa, Blaze Beauty Studio

Aldi sits on its own three-acre parcel at 80 Mathews Drive. The Town of Hilton Head's Design Review Committee approved the project in early 2025. Since then, crews have put up the building and added a parking lot on its east side. Aldi's store page lists hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily for the location. Until now, the closest Aldi stores were across the bridge. The Bluffton store at 1131 Fording Island Road opened in 2023 as the first in Beaufort County. A Beaufort store at Beaufort Station Shopping Center followed in October 2025.

Where Mathews Drive Fits on the Island's Grocery Map

Before this fall, most of the island's full-size grocery stores sat in groups along Pembroke Drive and Main Street to the north, Shelter Cove in the middle, and Pope Avenue and Palmetto Bay Road to the south. Mathews Drive adds a full-size grocery store of its own, plus Aldi. Below is the island's grocery map as of October 2026, with the two Mathews Drive stores added:

North end

• Publix at Festival Centre, 45 Pembroke Drive
• Walmart Supercenter, 25 Pembroke Drive
• Harris Teeter at Main Street Village, 301 Main Street

Mathews Drive

• Food Lion at Port Royal Plaza, 93 Mathews Drive, with its ribbon-cutting set for Nov. 11
• Aldi at Sea Turtle Marketplace, 80 Mathews Drive, in a newly built store

Mid-island

• Kroger, 42 Shelter Cove Lane
• The Fresh Market, 890 William Hilton Parkway, Suite 110

South end

• Publix at Island Crossing, 11 Palmetto Bay Road
• Harris Teeter at Park Plaza, 33 Office Park Road
• Piggly Wiggly, 1 N. Forest Beach Drive

The map has lost a store too. Whole Foods at Shelter Cove closed in August 2024, which leaves The Fresh Market as the island's specialty grocer. More change is on the way at the south end. In February, the Island Packet reported that Publix is bringing a third Hilton Head store, 48,000 square feet, to the old Bi-Lo space in Circle Center at 70 Pope Avenue near Coligny Beach Park. It will anchor a reconfigured plaza owned by Brixmor.

Like Mathews Drive, Circle Center is putting a grocery store back into an empty supermarket building. The south end lost its Food Lion in 2012, and Food Lion's return now lands mid-island.

A Platform Planned for the Ospreys

The birds that watched the Sam's Club parking lot empty out are part of the plan for the new lot too. The Island Packet reported in October that Food Lion would buy and put up a nesting platform on a pole very close to the old light pole. Sheila Broadbent, a volunteer who monitors the nest for Osprey Watch, pushed for the birds. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources monitored the project early on. Food Lion was in talks with Palmetto Electric about a donated pole.

Food Lion said it would supply the platform, a perch and a predator shield. Broadbent planned to move part of the old nest onto the new platform, and she expects it to be ready when the pair returns in February or March. The plan puts the new platform in the Port Royal Plaza parking lot, just steps from the light pole the pair used for more than a decade.

If you're comparing which parts of Hilton Head put everyday errands close to home, from Pembroke Drive and Mathews Drive to Shelter Cove and Pope Avenue, Lorie Sauer can walk you through how the north end, mid-island and south end each fit a weekly routine. Schedule a Showing, and we'll plan the tour around the places you'll stop at most.