Thrifty Foods has confirmed it is interested in the Belmont Secondary School lands as a future location for a Langford store.
The Belmont building, to be replaced by two new schools slated to open in September 2015, is still in use but that hasn’t stopped the grocer from considering the site.
“Like so many spots that we are looking at, we are, as an organization extremely interested in the location and right now we are doing our due diligence on the site,” said Thrifty Foods spokesman Ralf Mundel. “There’s nothing hard and fast in terms of a commitment at this point.”
Mundel said while Thrifty Foods has 11 Greater Victoria locations, including one in Colwood, the West Shore is underserved.
“Langford, the whole West Shore in fact, is a wonderful growth opportunity,” he said. “We have long been looking for the correct site in that marketplace.”
Mundel would not go into detail on what kind of store Thrifty Foods envisions for Langford, nor would he say what other locations are being considered.
At least one hurdle seems to be out of the way in terms of the Belmont lands. Following a public hearing this week, Langford council gave its blessing to rezoning the property from institutional to a new Langford City Centre zone which will permit pedestrian-orientated, mixed commercial and residential use.
The application to rezone the property excludes the portion containing the school board office.
As Belmont will be occupied until spring 2015 the new designation is more of a conceptual land-use and density designation and no detailed site plans or design concepts are available at this time, said a city staff report.
The Sooke school district asked for the rezoning of the school property before they sell it. Any new owner will have 1.5 years to conduct market research and undertake detailed site planning for a new development.
Thrifty Foods parent company Sobeys recently sold eight Island grocery stores — seven Safeways and a Thrifty Foods — to Save-On-Foods to satisfy a Competition Bureau requirement.
The bureau required the company to divest itself of 23 locations in Western Canada to satisfy the bureau and to finalize its $5.8-billion purchase of 213 Canada Safeway locations last year.
The Competition Bureau said it was concerned about the lessening of competition with Sobeys’ purchase of Safeway. Sobeys already owned grocery brands Thrifty Foods, Sobeys, IGA, Foodland, FreshCo and Price Chopper.
The Island sales included the four Safeway locations in Greater Victoria — University Heights, Sidney, Tillicum Centre, and Fort and Foul Bay — Safeway locations in Port Alberni, Ladysmith and Duncan, and a Thrifty Foods on the Island Highway in Nanaimo.
The Island locations sold will become Save-On-Foods stores, and should be operating under that banner by May.
— with a file from Bill Cleverley
