Loblaw Companies Ltd. has its sights set on opening another downtown Vancouver grocery store, according to T&T Supermarket CEO Cindy Lee.
“There is one coming but I cannot say more,” Lee told Business in Vancouver November 2.
Loblaw Companies (TSX:L) already operates the No Frills-branded supermarket in the Denman Place Mall but otherwise has no presence in the downtown peninsula, which is crowded with brands such as Urban Fare, Safeway, SuperValu, Capers Community Market, Choices Markets, Costco, T&T Supermarket and MarketPlace IGA.
Lee, who built her company from scratch before selling it to Loblaws for $225 million in July 2009, plans to open an Osaka-branded grocery store in North Vancouver on November 17.
She said the biggest challenge with profitably operating a grocery store downtown is the cost of real estate.
BIV reported yesterday that developers of a proposed 46-storey tower at the corner of Hornby and Drake streets are willing to consider requests from nearby residents to put a grocery store in the complex.
Jim Pattison, who is one of the developers proposing the 46-storey tower, has no plans for a grocery store, however, according to Overwaitea Food Group president Steve van der Leest.
“The [downtown Vancouver grocery] market is getting well covered,” said van der Leest, whose company is owned by Pattison.
Overwaitea is still digesting recent downtown and near-downtown openings.
It opened an Urban Fare store in Coal Harbour in 2007 and then another Urban Fare on Alberni Street in the Shangri-la building in late 2008.
“Our Save-on-Foods on Cambie Street [that opened in early 2008] has been well supported by the nearby community and by people downtown as well,” van der Leest told BIV.