For most of the past eight years, the busiest intersection in this part of Norfolk had a hole in it. The grocery anchor at 201 E. Little Creek Road closed in 2018. The building stayed empty for years and then came down. This month a Target opened on the same spot. That would be news on its own. What makes this fall different at Granby Street and Little Creek Road is the timing. The store, a longtime bookstore across Granby, and the interstate bridges that carry I-64 over both roads are all reaching their next stage within a few weeks of each other.
So Wards Corner isn't getting one new store. The whole crossroads is being rebuilt from the ground and from overhead at once, and the weekly errand loop around it is changing with it.
Eight years at one address
The long gap is easier to see laid out by date. Here's how the site at 201 E. Little Creek Road got from grocery store to empty lot to Target:
- 2000: Kroger opens at Wards Corner, according to The Virginian-Pilot's 2018 report.
- 2018: The store closes. The same Pilot article reported that Kroger would not move into the former Farm Fresh building across the street at 230 E. Little Creek Road.
- August 2023: WTKR described the building as still vacant, with its future only "slowly coming into focus."
- June 2024: Demolition is underway.
- 2025: Norfolk confirms Target is coming. Civic league leaders had said back in 2023 that negotiations were underway.
- January 2026: A curb lane on eastbound E. Little Creek Road between Granby Street and the I-64 overpass closes for utility work and new sidewalk for the store.
- October 6, 2026: Target soft-opens, five days before its Sunday, Oct. 11 grand opening date.
That's about six years from closing to demolition and about eight from closing to reopening. For anyone who started shopping at Wards Corner after 2018, the corner has never had an anchor.
What 129,000 square feet adds on Little Creek Road
The new store fills about 129,000 square feet of the old grocery site. The Virginian-Pilot put it in context: it's Norfolk's second Target, and the first, on Military Highway, has been open for 30 years. For three decades the city had one Target, on the other side of town from Wards Corner. Now it has two.
Here's what's inside, according to Target's store fact sheet and the Pilot's report:
- Hours: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily
- Inside the store: a CVS Pharmacy and a Starbucks Café
- Pickup and delivery: Drive Up, Order Pickup, same-day delivery, and next-day delivery across Norfolk
- In the lot: electric vehicle charging stations
Grocery may be the biggest change for nearby errands. WTKR's preview in September said the store would have a larger-than-usual grocery section. Since 2018, the main grocery option at the intersection has been Harris Teeter at K-K Square at Wards Corner, 7550 Granby St., which is open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. The Pilot's 2018 story described Harris Teeter as the area's remaining grocery store once Kroger closed. As of this month, the intersection has two places to buy fresh food again.
At the soft opening, WTKR spoke with Michelle Morgan, a Norfolk firefighter-EMT who was among the first shoppers through the doors:
"What I really appreciate is that now that Target is here at Wards Corner in Norfolk, our citizens have the chance to come in and get fresh vegetables."
Morgan also mentioned the wide aisles and spacious layout, which she said will make the store easier to get around for older adults and people using mobility devices. Store Director Maria Bishop, a Norfolk resident herself, told the station she had been waiting for the opening "like the rest of the community."
Across Granby, a 22-year tenant is moving
The anchor coming back is only half of what's happening at the corner. Book Exchange has been at Wards Corner for 22 years. It's leaving its longtime spot on the northeast corner of the intersection and moving across Granby Street into the former Rite Aid. Customers there trade used books and music for store credit. WTKR reported in July that the bigger space will let the shop add a "Sports Exchange" that works the same way for gently used sports equipment.
The new store is being built partly from Wards Corner's own retail past. Kole Matheson of Book Exchange showed the station shelves he brought over from a former Lynnhaven Book Exchange location. He's also reusing shelving the pharmacy left behind to hold the sports gear. One empty drugstore is getting filled by a business that was already here, and that fits the pattern at Wards Corner this fall. The intersection is mostly reusing what it has. The big-box building rose on the old grocery site, and the bookstore is taking over the old pharmacy.
Here's the errand loop around the intersection as it stands now:
| Stop | Location | What changed in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Target, with CVS Pharmacy and Starbucks Café | 201 E. Little Creek Road | Opened in October on the former Kroger site |
| Black Rifle Coffee Company | 216 E. Little Creek Road | Open daily, on the same stretch as Target |
| Harris Teeter, K-K Square at Wards Corner | 7550 Granby St. | Open daily; now one of two grocery options at the intersection |
| Book Exchange | Former Rite Aid, across Granby from its old corner | Moving and adding a Sports Exchange |
Black Rifle Coffee's Norfolk shop at 216 E. Little Creek Road is just down the road from the new Target, so a coffee stop and a store run can now happen on the same block of Little Creek.
Overhead, the bridge work is in its final season
The new store brings a fair question about traffic, and it's tied to something happening right above the intersection. WTKR noted that some residents had raised concerns about more traffic in a corridor already known for congestion. Others hope the Virginia Department of Transportation's work on Interstate 64 near Wards Corner will ease it.
That work is VDOT's Hampton Roads Express Lanes Norfolk Segment 1A, and Wards Corner sits right in the middle of it. The project is turning the inside shoulder of I-64 into a part-time, high-occupancy express lane in each direction between Tidewater Drive and Patrol Road, about two miles. Three general-purpose lanes stay in place each way. VDOT's list of bridge work reads like a map of the intersection. I-64 east is getting widened and rehabilitated over Granby Street and over Little Creek Road, and I-64 west is getting rehabilitated over both roads.
Construction started in summer 2023, so the bridge work and the empty-lot years overlapped for a long stretch. The design-build contract is $188 million, and VDOT puts the estimated overall cost at $197.6 million. Completion is estimated for fall 2026, and VDOT notes that all work depends on weather and the schedule can change. VDOT's project page, last updated Oct. 13, lists the Oct. 8 reopening of long-term lane closures on East Little Creek Road. That came two days after Target's soft opening.
The store opened, the long-term lane closures under the bridges came off, and the project as a whole is due to wrap up this season. The ground level and the roadway overhead are finishing their work in the same few weeks.
Where Wards Corner's fall picks up next
The closest event to the new errand loop is a short drive up Sewells Point Road. Norfolk Parks and Recreation and Norfolk Festevents host Beats & Treats: A Halloween Block Party at Five Points Park/Plaza, 6123 Sewells Point Road, this Friday, Oct. 30, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The city's listing promises house beats, games and giveaways, with DJ Amarosa of Music Theory Studios. It closes out the park's 2026 series, which started with Motown & Mingle in May and included Island Nights, a string quartet tribute to Stevie Wonder, and a September movie night. Costumes, candy and a block party are easy to fit in Friday evening on the way back from the new store.
If you live near Wards Corner and want to know how your home compares now that the corner is busy again, Conner and Company can give you a local read on what's changed. Get Your Instant Home Valuation to start the conversation.
