Horizon Market, the nonprofit grocery store Horizon Goodwill Industries is building at 200 North Prospect Street, still has no opening date. Its website says only "Opening this fall." The building itself is much further along than that phrase suggests. Horizon Goodwill's June 2026 update reported new windows and an entrance door installed, with freezers, displays, and checkout counters nearing completion.
The decisions that are still open matter more to a downtown shopper than the construction. On the evening of September 9, Horizon Goodwill opened the unfinished store to the public. It served refreshments and played music, and it set up table stations to collect input on pricing, convenience, hours, and product selection. Six years into the project, the store downtown will get is still being shaped. For anyone living or working near Prospect and Church streets, the next few weeks decide what it will actually be like to shop there.
How a 2022 Opening Became "This Fall"
The project's timeline explains why so much is still open. Each target date came with its own plan, and the plans changed along the way.
- Early 2020. Leaders from Horizon Goodwill, Meritus Health, and the Washington County Community Action Council started discussing downtown food access as part of the Healthy Washington County Go For Bold initiative.
- December 2021. DC News Now reported the store would be operating by summer 2022. CEO David Shuster said it would not include a butcher or a full-service bakery.
- January 2022. The Herald-Mail reported that construction would start early that year and the store would open later in 2022. It described about 8,000 square feet of the 36,000-square-foot building being remodeled.
- July 2024. Horizon Goodwill held a groundbreaking, and the projected opening moved to the end of 2024 or early 2025. The Herald-Mail put the renovation estimate at $1.5 million to $1.75 million, with Maryland's Department of Housing and Community Development and the Appalachian Regional Commission as the two largest funders.
- February 2025. The state announced a $450,000 FY2025 Seed Community Development Anchor Institution award, in partnership with the University System of Maryland, and expected construction to finish in late 2025.
- September 2026. The open house took place mid-construction. Two weeks later, DC News Now reported that Horizon Goodwill was close to 75 percent of the funding for a $4.5 million community initiative.
The gap between the 2024 renovation estimate and the 2026 figure comes from the project's scope. The $4.5 million covers more than the store. According to the September report, it also funds jobs at the store, a youth development program for workforce training and recreation, and medical and dental clinics near the grocery. "It's a nonprofit grocery store," Shuster told the station. "We'll have access to healthcare and dental services and adolescent and summer youth after-school programs."
Published reports also give different sizes for the store. The 2022 Herald-Mail account and the September 2026 DC News Now report describe about 8,000 square feet. The state's 2025 announcement describes 14,000 square feet. Until the store opens, the floor plan is one more detail that hasn't been confirmed.
What Is Settled, and What Is Still Being Asked
Some things are confirmed in Horizon Goodwill's own 2026 materials. Others come from plans published years earlier and may have changed since. The table separates the two.
| Question | Where it stands as of early October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Who can shop there | Customers of every income level, per Horizon Goodwill's September post |
| Where the stock comes from | Wholesalers and other vendors, not donated goods |
| Opening date | "This fall," with no calendar date announced |
| Hours | Not announced; residents were asked about them in September |
| Pricing | Affordability was the stated goal in early plans; prices were still part of the September feedback |
| SNAP/EBT | The 2022 Herald-Mail report said yes; no current confirmation found |
| Butcher and bakery | Ruled out in 2021; no newer word on final departments |
| Parking | No dedicated plan in published materials |
The sourcing policy is the clearest commitment in the current materials. Horizon Goodwill says the market "is designed for everyone" and will be stocked through wholesalers and other vendors instead of relying on donations. That makes it a conventional grocery run by a nonprofit, not a pantry. It runs the store at its downtown facility on Prospect Street and describes the goal as fresh food and household staples for the whole downtown area, which the USDA classifies as a "food desert."
The rest of the table comes from older plans. The 2022 Herald-Mail report said the store would accept SNAP/EBT. A 2020 Herald-Mail account described a plan to keep prices down by buying in bulk where possible. Treat both as earlier intent. The September post said the store is being built to work for the people who will shop there, "whether that's pricing, convenience, hours, or product selection." Horizon Goodwill was still asking those questions in September.
Hours Are the Biggest Open Question
Of everything still undecided, hours will matter most to a downtown shopper, because the fresh-food options within walking distance today keep limited schedules.
Horizon Goodwill already runs two small stores downtown, and they show how much hours vary. The Horizon Corner Market at the C.W. Brooks building, 35 W. Baltimore St., sells groceries, milk, eggs, and other basics. Its listed hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays. The Horizon Corner Market at Walnut Towers, 8 S. Walnut St., lists 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends. Those hours come from a 2024 page, and an earlier Chamber listing gave different hours for Walnut Towers. Call before you count on either. The Herald-Mail described both shops in 2024 as convenience-oriented, with fruit and healthier packaged options but not a supermarket's range.
Fresh produce downtown has also been seasonal. The Historic City Farmers Market ran Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Hub City Brewery, 25 W. Church St., from May 31 to September 27. The September vendor list included a farm, a produce vendor, an apiary, jam and bakery sellers, and prepared food. The organizer has posted no fall or winter schedule and says it is looking ahead to 2027.
The Sunday market season closed one week before this post. Until Horizon Market opens, the nearby options are the two Corner Markets on their posted hours and a few small independent markets. Everything else means a trip out to the supermarkets.
Where the Weekly Grocery Run Goes Until Opening Day
Horizon Goodwill's own project description says households in the area do not have easy access to a traditional grocery store and often depend on public transit or long walks to reach one. The nearest full supermarkets are clustered east and south of the core:
- ALDI, 565 Dual Highway, listed open daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- MARTIN'S, 1729 Dual Highway, plus a second store at 1650 C. Wesel Blvd.
- Weis Markets, listed in a Meritus resource guide at 31 Eastern Blvd. N.
- Walmart Supercenter, 17850 Garland Groh Blvd., which has a grocery department.
The same Meritus guide lists two independent markets: La Bodega Market at 22 W. Franklin St., the closest to the Prospect Street site, and El Eden International Market at 908 Dual Highway. The guide is undated, so confirm current hours directly. In March, Grocery Outlet's 2026 closure list included the store at 1713 Massey Blvd. Reports did not give a final day for the Hagerstown location.
Every supermarket on that list sits along Dual Highway or farther out. That spread is the reason a store at Prospect and Church streets matters so much for the city core. A 2022 project interview also noted that big conventional grocery formats, and the parking they need, are hard to fit downtown. Horizon Market's mid-sized format, run inside an existing Horizon Goodwill building, is designed to work within that limit.
Following the Opening From Here
The Horizon Market site and Horizon Goodwill's project page are the places an opening date will appear first. The project page has a newsletter signup that includes an invitation to the grand opening. The supporters listed on that page show how many local institutions are involved. Besides the Appalachian Regional Commission and Maryland DHCD, they include Meritus Health, Truist, the Fletcher Foundation, the Sylvia & Janko Frank Family Fund, Albert & Naomi Sinnisen, and Washington County Community Organization Funding.
The September post invited anyone who missed the open house to keep following the project, and it described the store as being built "for the people who live, work, and visit downtown Hagerstown." The hours, the price strategy, and the final product mix are the details still to be announced, and they will decide whether the corner of Prospect and Church becomes a regular grocery stop.
Steven L Powell and his team follow projects like Horizon Market from construction through opening day, because anchors like this change daily life in the blocks around them. If you own property in downtown Hagerstown and want to know where it stands as the city core changes, request a Private Home Valuation.
