Joel Banner Baird

Free Press Staff Writer

City Market/Onion River Co-op, Burlington's only downtown supermarket, has announced plans to open a satellite store on North Winooski Avenue — in a neighborhood close to where the institution began, 43 years ago.

The Old North End branch, just south of Archibald Street, could open as early as next fall, said General Manager John Tashiro, and “would be sort of coming back home for us.”

The co-op moved to its current location on South Winooski Avenue in 2002, where it has flourished. In 2014, sales totaled more than $38 million, a 6 percent increase over the year before.

Co-op officials have signed a preliminary agreement with Redstone developers to lease a commercial building next to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf.

“It’s a good fit for us, as a location as well as from the structural standpoint,” Tashiro said.

Until recently, most of the building at 242-244 North Winooski Ave. served as a Car Quest auto parts store.

An Advance Auto Parts sign on the front door directs customers to a new location on Williston Road in South Burlington.

If the Old North End market materializes, it would occupy 6,000 square feet at ground level, 6,000 square feet of basement and an outbuilding with 2,000 square feet, according to a statement released Wednesday by the co-op.

City Market is already working on a South End branch store on Flynn Avenue to open next summer, perhaps just a few months before the Old North End grocery stocks its shelves.

The North End building’s other tenant, Central Market/Taste of Asia, will remain, Tashiro said.

The food shelf, a long-time beneficiary of the co-op’s “Rally for Change” fundraising program, would likely become an even closer partner, he added.

Strong support for a grocery in the Old North End came from residents in those communities, Tashiro said; and the move corresponds to the co-op’s mission of providing more people with better access to healthy, fresh food.

Christine Hill, 27, who has lived in the neighborhood for about seven years, paused in front of the shuttered auto parts store and delivered a whopping endorsement.

The Old North End comes close to being a “food desert,” Hill said: Many folks find their best option is driving to a distant supermarket and loading up with a month’s worth of meals.

Hill prefers to make almost daily trips on her bicycle to City Market, braving traffic snarls created by shoppers who enter and exit the lot by car.

“I’d like to think I shop like a French person,” she said. “I decide what I want to eat, and I go out shop for it on that day. It’s a great way to get better food.”

The co-op’s plans are on a fast, albeit deliberative track. Its tentative agreement with Redstone is secured with a $19,000, refundable holding fee until Oct. 24, giving the board time to do its “due diligence” before making a final decision, Tashiro said.

Redstone’s flexibility on the timeline has been most welcome, he added, because much of the co-op’s resources have been directed toward building the branch on Flynn Avenue, Tashiro said.

This story was first published Wednesday, June 8, 2016.

Contact Joel Banner Baird at (802) 660-1843 or joelbaird@freepressmedia.com.

Do you have a breaking news tip? Call us at 802-660-6500 or send us a post on Facebook or Twitter using ‪#‎BFPTips.

EARLIER:

South End neighbors weigh new City Market

How City Market got to be No. 1 in the U.S.