Kings Contrivance Village Center will be without a grocery store for more than a year to allow construction of a larger and more upscale supermarket.
Soon after Safeway's lease expires in late June, construction is scheduled to begin on a Harris Teeter supermarket, part of a North-Carolina-based chain with 138 stores in six states from Virginia to Florida.
The Safeway and an adjacent vacant building that years ago housed a Friendly's restaurant will be torn down to make room for a structure as large as 56,000 square feet, said Kevin Allen, director of retail and office properties for Kimco Realty Corp., a New Hyde Park, N.Y.--based company that owns the village center. The current supermarket building is 40,733 square feet.
Allen, who said the county must approve construction plans, made the announcement last week at a village board meeting.
The Harris Teeter supermarket would be the first in Columbia and the second in Maryland. The company is planning to open a store in Darnestown in Montgomery County this summer, said Jennifer Panetta, a company spokeswoman.
She said the Columbia store could open as soon as late 2007.
"This new supermarket will offer a whole new look of vibrancy to the village, and we are happy about this," said Barbara Seely, chairwoman of the Kings Contrivance Village Board. "We all know that in order to do a grocery store that is an expanded version of what we have ... we are going to have to do without a store for awhile. It will be worth it."
Phil Marcus, the Columbia Association Board member representing Kings Contrivance, acknowledged that there will be an impact on merchants during construction, but he said stores such as the CVS pharmacy and Kings Contrivance Liquor and Smoke Shop, along with Michael's Pub, will continue to attract patrons.
"We're concerned about the downtime for a year due to the construction," said George Strott, general manager of Michael's Pub. "But we think it will be beneficial for all when it's completed."
The village center was without a grocery store for a couple of months in 1999 when Safeway replaced Valu Foods at the same location.
Allen said Kimco is looking at ways to minimize the construction impact on the village center.
"We will absolutely keep the rest of the center open during the construction period to continue to serve the community," he said. "We are evaluating internally some promotions and advertising to encourage the community to shop the village center while the grocery store is closed."
