Want to see a grocery again in downtown Gig Harbor? Grocer wants to hear from you
Last week it came to light that Town & Country Markets was still considering a store in Gig Harbor after facing development delays with Village at Harbor Hill.
Now comes news that the grocer wants feedback on the site it is considering: the former Thriftway/QFC store location in the Peninsula Shopping Center on Judson Street downtown.
Before launching headfirst into the project, the grocer wants community feedback, according to Town & Country CEO Bill Weymer.
Weymer is urging people to tell them what they would think of the new site by writing his grocery via email at gigharbor@tc-markets.com.
Since this is an “exploratory” phase, no time line is set on when a decision would be made or construction would launch.
“We’re excited by the possibilities, and it feels right to be part of a project that breathes new life into an existing shopping center in partnership with other local businesses,” Susan Allen, senior director of brand development for the grocer, said in a company announcement on Sept. 30.
Allen said her company has forged local ties to Gig Harbor after years of trying, unsuccessfully, to open a store at Village at Harbor Hill, being developed by Olympic Property Group, as to why the market decided to consider another location managed by OPG.
“The community support has been incredibly heartwarming. That was, and continues to be, the highlight,” she said. “It made us fall in love with Gig Harbor even more and be even more determined to open a market there.”
After considering its options, the grocery chain, based in Poulsbo, decided to try repurposing an existing storefront in Gig Harbor rather than trying to build from the ground up.
The site was home once to Thriftway and later QFC, which closed at the site in 2011.
Town & Country is family owned and operates six stores. It started on Bainbridge Island and now includes stores under the Central Market banner in Poulsbo, Mill Creek and Shoreline and has smaller markets in Ballard and Bellevue.
Village at Harbor Hill in north Gig Harbor, meanwhile, remains in litigation between the developers and the city of Gig Harbor over traffic impact fees. On Sept. 24, Pierce County Superior Court denied the city’s motion for reconsideration of an earlier request seeking dismissal of the case.
If all comes to pass, Town & Country won’t be the only new grocer in town.
Metropolitan Market is currently being touted as the possible next tenant for the former Main & Vine site, which was also formerly home to QFC after it relocated from the Judson Street site.
To add to the musical retail chairs of storefronts in the city, 7 Seas Brewing in Gig Harbor, which is now in the shopping center where Town & Country possibly could be in the future, announced late last year it would be moving in the next two years from the Judson Street location to a waterfront site.
This story was originally published October 1, 2019 at 6:05 AM.