Downtown Denver’s wait for a full-service grocery store is almost over.

The King Soopers at 20th Street and Chestnut Place will open its sliding doors at 6 a.m. Aug. 12, a corporate spokeswoman confirmed Friday. A ribbon-cutting ceremony, with King Soopers leadership and elected officials, is scheduled for 9 a.m.

The 46,475-square-foot grocery store, on the ground floor of a five-story luxury apartment building between Union Station and Coors Field, has been under construction since 2013.

The surrounding neighborhoods — Lower Downtown, Central Platte Valley and Central Business District — have wanted a full-service grocery store for much longer than that.

“It’s been an underserved neighborhood for a long time,” King Soopers spokeswoman Kelli McGannon said. “It was really about finding the right development with a suitable retail location.”

That location, 1950 Chestnut Place, will include 86 free parking spaces for customers, a pharmacy with separate street entrance and, given its proximity to Coors Field, a bigger service desk to handle game-day demand for Rockies tickets.

From the entrance on Chestnut, customers will find themselves in the heart of an expanded fresh- and prepared-foods selection, tailored to the rapidly developing urban neighborhood.

“This store, it will be more of a foodie experience inside,” McGannon said.

Among the amenities are a Murray’s Cheese Shop, with 130 specialty cheeses; Boar’s Head Sandwich and Panini Shop; and Bistro at 5280, serving up burritos, salads, rotisserie chicken and other prepared meals.

A dine-in sushi shop features a “sushi train,” a specialized conveyer belt that will carry sushi to customers sitting at the bar, McGannon said.

The store’s Starbucks, which boasts an outdoor patio along 20th Street, will stay open until midnight — much later than most in-store locations.

The store will also offer outside tailgate specials on Rockies game days, McGannon said. “A lot of emphasis in this store is to be local and a reflection of us being a Colorado company.”

Inside the store Friday morning, nonperishable goods were being stocked for the first time along aisle upon aisle, a process that began this week, McGannon said. To ensure freshness, produce won’t be brought in until the day before opening.

Other finishing touches, including a mural of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain peaks, are still being applied.

Upstairs, Elan Union Station, the 314-unit apartment complex that shares the building, was already 50 percent leased as of Friday, community manager Nikki Willis said.

The first residents moved in May 1. Construction on the final units, on the side of the complex closest to Coors Field, is expected to be finished in October, she said.

The studio, 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments, which feature quartz countertops, bamboo floors and smart thermostats, range from $1,475 to $4,305 a month, according to the property website. Community amenities include outdoor courtyards with a year-round swimming pool and bocce ball court; tech center with private workstations; yoga/barre studio; dog washing station; and a bike- and ski-repair shop.

“The King Soopers factor is huge,” Willis said. “There’s no other grocery store downtown, and we have an elevator that goes into a resident lobby and directly into the King Soopers.”

Other retail tenants in the building will be a Wells Fargo branch and a restaurant by an undisclosed local restaurateur, she said.

Emilie Rusch: 303-954-2457, erusch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/emilierusch