[C]ity Market/Onion River Co-op announced the purchase of property from the Vermont Rail System and future plans to expand the food co-op to a new Burlington location on Tuesday.
Construction on a South End branch of the food cooperative will begin in spring 2017 with an anticipated opening in the late spring of 2017, according to City Market general manager John Tashiro.
Tashiro made the announcement at ArtsRiot – an art gallery, restaurant and performance space on Pine Street, which is located in the South End.
Pat Burns, the store’s former general manager, said the neighborhood is a “vibrant and growing community” and the co-op had a longstanding interest in building a second store in the neighborhood.
“We’ve been working behind the scenes since that time and we feel that we’ve finally found the right property for our second location,” Burns said.
After years of exploring different neighborhoods in Winooski, Burlington and Williston, City Market finally decided on a property on the corner of Flynn Avenue and Briggs Street.
Tashiro said that the main goal of South End City Market will be to enrich the neighborhood. An additional location, he said, would “ease some of the pressure” on the often-crowded downtown store at South Winooski Avenue and Bank Street.
“First and foremost, obviously as a cooperative we want to continue to contribute to and benefit local community,” he said.
Founded as a food-buying club 40 years ago, City Market is now the only grocery store in the city’s downtown area and Old North End, with 10,000 members and $38 million in grocery sales last year. “As one of the nation’s largest single-store cooperatives, we recognize that there’s much more room for growth where we can have an ultimately have an impact,” said Tashiro.
Not all members of the community are supportive.
Burlington’s South End currently houses a large population of artists and artisans, many of whom have lived and worked in the neighborhood for decades, according to South End resident and ArtsRiot co-owner PJ McHenry.
McHenry said he personally appreciates City Market the cooperative business model. “I was incredibly appreciative to hold the announcement here at Arts Riot,” he said. “That being said, I think the sentiment of people in the South End is pretty split. It’s kind of polarizing.”
Some in the neighborhood welcome the convenience of a local grocery store, and the money that they hope it will bring to the area, said McHenry. “And then you have people that have had studios down here for 30-plus years who are afraid they’ll be driven out.”
To those longstanding residents who oppose it, the new City Market may represent just one in a series of several proposed development projects for the South End, that threaten to change the neighborhood’s status as an artistic or cultural hub – or worse – drive up its relatively low average rent. The draft of PlanBTV South End, which includes creation of a “Maker’hood” that involves rezoning several spots to build multistory housing and studio apartments, along with Champlain Parkway, which will connect highway I-189 to Lakeside Avenue, are two such projects.
“You have passionate people putting time into making things, creating things, kind of organically developing the space, and I think that’s where it gets scary,” McHenry said.
South End resident David Robbins, whose shop, Upstairs Antiques, is on the development site of the impending new co-op, offered a different perspective on the development.
“I’ve been here for 17 years – maybe it’s time for me to change,” said Robbins. “I mean these buildings are tired and old, they’re unsightly. People in Burlington like things that are attractive and modern, clean – I’m none of those things,” he said. “I haven’t swept the steps since I don’t know when.”
“This is gonna stir me up and stimulate me. Maybe I’ll end up moving into a place that’s better and a dollar cheaper,” he mulled. “Let’s call it progress.”
