Pan-Asia Supermarket in Antioch opened in early February and almost immediately turned into a regional magnet, with long lines and shoppers loading carts with specialty ingredients and viral snacks. The store is the first tenant to welcome customers in the larger Tennessee Nashville Chinatown project, and both owners and patrons say its arrival marks a meaningful moment for Southeast Nashville’s Asian community and food scene. For families who used to drive hours to track down particular ingredients, the market shortens the trip and reshapes where people go for Asian groceries.
As reported by WSMV, Pan-Asia opened in February with more than 10,000 items on the shelves, plus a café, a bakery, and a live-seafood counter, making it the largest Asian grocery in Nashville. Councilwoman Joy Styles announced a grand-opening event to mark the store’s debut, and staff say lines have stayed steady since day one. Manager Siew Tan told the station the market aims to serve many communities, explaining, “We’re like an international store – not just a Chinese store or Asian store.”
Inside the aisles and the food court
Local lifestyle coverage notes that the supermarket doubles as a dining destination, with a sizable food-court footprint and multiple prepared-food counters tucked alongside the grocery aisles, according to StyleBlueprint. Early customers have zeroed in on the bakery, sushi, and boba offerings – plus novelty ice creams and viral Korean noodles – as big reasons the lines keep forming.
What the broader Chinatown will look like
Developers envision a roughly 4.8-acre, mixed-use “Tennessee Nashville Chinatown” centered on the Pan-Asia anchor, with plans for about 100,000 square feet of restaurants, retail, and office space, roughly 10 dining concepts, and an events venue, per planning coverage from Planetizen. The buildout is expected to create roughly 300 construction jobs and several hundred full- and part-time positions when complete.
Choice lanes put the site at risk
The store’s early momentum now faces a high-stakes planning test. The Tennessee Department of Transportation’s I-24 Southeast Choice Lanes project includes conceptual right-of-way maps and an Environmental Assessment on the agency’s project page that show possible corridor changes through Antioch. Those documents and local reporting indicate the released maps could identify parcels that would be affected, and coverage found the plan could require the removal of Pan-Asia and about 20 other businesses, per WSMV. The supermarket told the station it invested roughly $10 million in the location and signed a 30-year lease. TDOT says the maps are conceptual, is encouraging public comment, and has posted the Environmental Assessment and hearing details on its project page…