CLEVELAND, Ohio - A grocer new to Northeast Ohio expects to put down roots on the city's west side, where an empty church has lingered for more than two decades for lack of solid prospects to remake or replace it.

Lucky's Market, a small but growing company based in Colorado, has signed a letter of intent to anchor the Shoppes on Clifton, a retail development planned along Clifton Boulevard between West 116th and West 117th streets. The grocer would fill a void left by Giant Eagle, which considered building a small-format, high-end store on the site, but walked away late last year.

A grocery store is the linchpin for the project, a gateway development at the Cleveland-Lakewood border. Lucky's and a second, multi-tenant retail building would rise along Clifton, where an old shopping strip was razed in 2012. A developer is planning townhouses along Lake Avenue to the north, where the vacant Fifth Church of Christ Scientist still stands. The octagonal church, owned by the city, will be demolished.

Marketing materials posted online by Passov Real Estate Group, a local brokerage, show a 22,650-square-foot Lucky's store at the northwest corner of Clifton and West 116th. Lucky's didn't respond to requests for comment.

Executives at the Carnegie Cos., the developer of the retail project, confirmed that they've been talking to the grocer since November. Solon-based Carnegie hopes to start construction in late fall or early spring.

"We need to finalize our deal with Lucky's and obtain necessary city approvals," Fred Scalese, vice president of property management for the real estate company, wrote in an email Wednesday.

A design-review committee at Cudell Improvement, Inc., a neighborhood nonprofit, reviewed preliminary plans for the Lucky's store in late April.

"We're hopeful," said Anita Brindza, the group's executive director. "I think they will do very well there, and I think they will have a positive impact on the rest of the community. ... People are looking for healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables; a shopping atmosphere that makes them feel warm and welcomed; and a sense of community where they can meet people and enjoy the shopping experience."

Founded in 2003, Lucky's has grown from a single market in Boulder, Colorado, to a handful of stores scattered from Billings, Montana, to Columbus to Gainesville, Florida. One of the company's founders was a co-founder of Wild Oats Marketplace, a grocery chain acquired by Whole Foods Market in 2007. After an antitrust challenge, Whole Foods later sold Wild Oats.

Lucky's aims to add eight to 10 new stores each year, with openings planned in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri and other states. The retailer wants spaces ranging from 18,000 to 40,000 square feet - with a "sweet spot" of 30,000 square feet, according to the company's real estate website. Executives like densely populated areas with well-educated shoppers, with a median annual income topping $50,000.

"I have been courting Lucky's for over a year," said City Councilman Matt Zone, who started out pitching the retailer on a possible redevelopment of the old Max S. Hayes High School property on Detroit Avenue. "It is a brand that looks at serving the freshest product, whether it's produce or dairy or poultry. They focus on a more local, organic, higher-end product. ... It's such a perfect fit in terms of what the neighborhood would like to see and what the brand stands for."

When Giant Eagle bowed out on Clifton, Zone said, Lucky's stepped in.

Giant Eagle recently eliminated deed restrictions that made it difficult to lure any other grocer to the block. The Pittsburgh-based supermarket chain once had a store on Clifton and owned nearby Fifth Church until 2002, when the company handed off the empty and dilapidated religious building to the city. In a protective move, the grocer limited competitive uses of the church property until 2022.

Real estate records show that Giant Eagle lifted those restrictions in January. That change mattered because plans for the Shoppes on Clifton call for demolition of the church and a reconfiguration of the site to accommodate surface parking for the grocery store and other retailers. The city expects to enter a land-swap deal with Carnegie, making room for the retail project while setting aside land along Lake for the townhouses.

City officials wouldn't discuss the block this week. In an emailed statement, a spokesman simply wrote that "the city remains committed to developing a high-quality project for this area."

Andrew Brickman, the townhouse developer, is anxious to start construction soon on high-end homes that will incorporate bits of the deconstructed Fifth Church into their facades. "I'm very excited about Lucky's," Brickman wrote in an email this week. "I think it's a much better fit than Giant Eagle for this neighborhood."

The Shoppes on Clifton also could include a Dollar Bank branch and a Great Clips salon, in the second building at Clifton and West 117th. One or two additional storefronts are available, according to leasing documents posted online.

Zone said the Cleveland Landmarks Commission might see revised plans for the block, including designs for the Lucky's store, in mid- to late June. Commission members signed off on the demolition of Fifth Church, a protected city landmark, a year ago. But the city won't raze the church until there's a real project to replace it.

"It's probably going to take 60 to 90 days to respectfully take down that church," said Zone, describing the process as deconstruction and salvage rather than outright demolition. "So it's September at the earliest to have a cleared site."