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A day after announcing that it would buy grocery stores in Portage and West Baraboo, Festival Foods submitted plans Wednesday with the city of Verona for a nearly 68,000-square-foot grocery store on the city’s northeast side.

If approved, it would become the second store in Dane County for the Onalaska-based retailer and offer direct competition to downtown Verona’s Miller & Sons, the only other full-service grocery store in the fast-growing city of more than 12,000 people.

Verona conducted a market analysis about two years ago and it showed that there was a need for more grocery opportunities within the city, said planning director Adam Sayre.

“It showed a lot of dollars leaving the city and going elsewhere,” Sayre said. “It showed people buying groceries, but not in Verona, so the market is obviously reacting to what customers are doing and they obviously want to capture those dollars.”

The proposal includes 252 surface parking stalls in front of the building on East Verona Avenue, just east of Farm & Fleet. Sayre said the proposal would go to the city’s Plan Commission on June 5 and be reviewed by the City Council on June 12. Ground could be broken in 2018 with the store opening in 2019, Sayre said.