Whole Foods has been announced as the grocery chain that will replace Safeway at Lonsdale and 13th as Onni moves ahead with its mixed-use condo and commercial development.
The developer confirmed the rumoured anchor tenant in a press release on Monday morning. Whole Foods is known to be a higher-end boutique chain with a focus on organic foods. The only other one on the North Shore is in West Vancouver, at The Village at Park Royal.
“We’re thrilled to announce such a high-calibre grocery store as our anchor tenant. It is a great reflection of our entire development,” said Nick Belmar, vice-president of sales for Onni in a press release. “We know a lot of North Vancouverites will be really happy to hear this news.”
Onni won approval for 344 condos in 24-storey and 18-storey towers, along with an eight-storey office tower and 90,000 square feet of commercial space at council one year ago.
Whole Foods intends to open for business in 2018, but there’s no date set for when Safeway will close its doors for the last time. Onni must give Safeway 45 days’ notice, as stated in the lease, according to Onni development manager Dionne Delesalle.
That means the store should be open until at least the end of April, with demolition to take place about two months later.
“We’re just doing stuff in stages. From my end, it’s coming down some time in the summer,” Delesalle said, adding that the site still needs environmental testing due to an old dry cleaning business on the property, and asbestos testing and removal from the main building. “There are a lot of moving parts to it so I don’t have a date yet.”
Delesalle said he hopes to have the final design drawings and building permit application for the project dubbed CentreView submitted to the city in April.
Despite the blue-collar nature of the Lonsdale corridor, Whole Foods shouldn’t have a hard time finding a market there according to Gordon Price, head of Simon Fraser University’s city program.
There is a trend toward high-end downtown grocery stores spreading out to the suburbs, Price added, particularly if there is a surrounding population of 4,000 to 5,000 who can reach the store on foot or by transit. With the Onni project’s one- and two-bedroom suites, and the surrounding towers, three-storey walk-ups, townhouses and single-family homes, that will meet the threshold, he said, even with Loblaws City Market opening at 17th and Lonsdale last year.
“They’ll take the lower and middle range, I guess,” Price said. “It sounds like about the right numbers. It there’s another 2,000-3,000 people in the neighbourhood, there’s certainly a niche to fill there.”
