The University’s closest Safeway Food and Drug has been reduced to rubble in recent weeks. But the campus grocery store on East 18th Avenue is coming back bigger and better August 12 after remodeling estimated to cost $2 million.
The store closed its doors March 31, and the demolition began a few days later. Whole chunks of the building fell victim to the bulldozer, and within a week, Safeway was flattened.
The foundation of the new building is now beginning to take shape. Hard hat-clad workers march around the site, pouring concrete and laying pipes. There’s very little evidence that the old Safeway even existed. Only one wall, shared with the adjacent Hirons Drug Store, remains of the old store.
“It’s considered a remodel because we left an existing wall standing,” said Project Engineer Eric Kneeland, speaking from the temporary office trailer at the site. “Everything was just outdated.”
According to Kneeland, the new building will be 34,497 square feet, larger than the original building, and provide new services including a pharmacy, an improvement Hirons isn’t too pleased with.
Hirons, located on the corner of East 18th Avenue and Pearl Street for almost 70 years, operates its own pharmacy.
“It will be hard, but I think we’ll pull through,” Hirons clerk Mike Moresi said.
The drug store has placed signs along the fence of the construction site trying let customers know it’s still open, even if Safeway isn’t.
“Business has picked up some,” Moresi said, adding that long-time customers are still navigating around the construction fences to find the entrance to the store.
PC Market of Choice, on the other hand, couldn’t be happier with Safeway’s remodel. The chain’s Franklin Boulevard location, which was also remodeled a year and a half ago, is several blocks east of student residence halls. Assistant Manager Greg Kruse said they’ve seen a “pretty substantial” increase in customers who formerly went to Safeway for groceries.
“A lot of the new customers will stay,” Kruse said. “They really like our store.”