ScubaRoomba
New Member
Agreed and may be harder for the smaller stores to compete with a big one like Metro in a prominent building.
Frontier | 30m | 8s | Truman | S2
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
trtcttc
Senior Member
As part of the project, they’ve widened both the E and W sidewalks on 18th street on the North side. This is great as that’s a popular route to the school nearby and had a number of collisions in the past. And I think this is the first permanent infrastructure for the Kensington lane reduction, which is still in “pilot” with the temporary blocks.
trtcttc
Senior Member
The FreshCo signs are up! Similar size to the No Frills in WVT
Zoom
Active Member
Another inner city grocer opens up!
trtcttc
Senior Member
What still surprised me is the lack of grocery in Bridgeland. With the LRT and the new condos there, very surprised nothing has opened. I know there is Bridgeland market, but that’s smaller and not really a full service grocery store
I think Bridgeland is close to critical mass for a grocery store. Aside from some of the bigger projects, there have been a lot of smaller multifamily infills. I would love to see an urban grocer on the north side of 1st ave with 5 storeys of residential on top.
trtcttc
Senior Member
Also the official opening is Aug 14.
AK452
New Member
I didn't understand how the FreshCo would be situated. The photo from trtcttc was the first to give an idea, but I was still confused. See below, but basically each side of the building is a two-way drive-in/out to access FreshCo parking, which is a huge hangar-like bay taking up the entire rear. There is indeed some frontage area and a door, dwarfed by the Metro next door, but at least offering some pedestrian appeal. But the larger entrance is actually accessed from the parking bay, probably mostly by people driving in.
It's an interesting layout. An issue with urban groceries is blight, say from an ugly parking lot and from featureless outside walls. Here the parking is covered and easy to get to. Not huge, but seems decent for a small-for-FreshCo store. It's better than our urban Safeways, which are highly accessible from surface lots but also unattractive. The University District NoFrills solved it with a surface lot not far away, plus a massive underground parkade. But those parkades are a bit off-putting if you just want to pop in quickly. Here, FreshCo parking is very easy to get to, with an entrance right there. It also appears separated from the main parkade, which is accessed from rear alley. So they stand a good chance of reserving the parking for FreshCo customers only. A nice touch is that the entire back of the building is styled consistently with the rest, rather than featureless brick. The rear is heavy on the green spandrel, but there are a bunch of doors (not sure what if anything they access) that make it almost lived in.
It should successfully cater to car culture, where realistically even locals will often drive next door for groceries. I suppose there's some rush hour traffic on Kensington, which despite traffic calming measures, is a main artery for people leaving downtown. Now they can very easily pop in and pick something up. Maybe the huge Metro is also part of the same calculation that says cars will come?
All in all, I'm pretty impressed with how they tucked in a real grocery store in a walkable area without destroying the atmosphere, AND providing accessible parking. I'm very optimistic.
Each side has a two-way drive-in/out: This is the west side, and right next door will be the new Crave cupcake/coffee shop.
And other side, at an angle where the "main entrance" is visible:
It's an interesting layout. An issue with urban groceries is blight, say from an ugly parking lot and from featureless outside walls. Here the parking is covered and easy to get to. Not huge, but seems decent for a small-for-FreshCo store. It's better than our urban Safeways, which are highly accessible from surface lots but also unattractive. The University District NoFrills solved it with a surface lot not far away, plus a massive underground parkade. But those parkades are a bit off-putting if you just want to pop in quickly. Here, FreshCo parking is very easy to get to, with an entrance right there. It also appears separated from the main parkade, which is accessed from rear alley. So they stand a good chance of reserving the parking for FreshCo customers only. A nice touch is that the entire back of the building is styled consistently with the rest, rather than featureless brick. The rear is heavy on the green spandrel, but there are a bunch of doors (not sure what if anything they access) that make it almost lived in.
It should successfully cater to car culture, where realistically even locals will often drive next door for groceries. I suppose there's some rush hour traffic on Kensington, which despite traffic calming measures, is a main artery for people leaving downtown. Now they can very easily pop in and pick something up. Maybe the huge Metro is also part of the same calculation that says cars will come?
All in all, I'm pretty impressed with how they tucked in a real grocery store in a walkable area without destroying the atmosphere, AND providing accessible parking. I'm very optimistic.
Each side has a two-way drive-in/out: This is the west side, and right next door will be the new Crave cupcake/coffee shop.
And other side, at an angle where the "main entrance" is visible: