o Previously: In December, plans were announced to launch a specialty foods store, Chuck’s Produce & Artisan Foods, in the former Joe’s sporting goods space at 13215 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd.
o What’s new: A late start on remodeling work has pushed the store’s opening date to August, instead of April.
o What’s next: Managers say they expect to open with approximately 90 to 95 employees.
East Vancouver consumers will have to wait a few more months for Chuck’s Produce & Artisan Foods market to open in the former Joe’s sporting goods store.
Design changes delayed the store’s $400,000 transformation and pushed back the food store’s planned April start date to August, said Ron Baier, Chuck’s Produce co-manager. He said the store’s new opening date would coincide with the early fall harvests of local suppliers.
o Previously: In December, plans were announced to launch a specialty foods store, Chuck's Produce & Artisan Foods, in the former Joe's sporting goods space at 13215 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd.
o What's new: A late start on remodeling work has pushed the store's opening date to August, instead of April.
o What's next: Managers say they expect to open with approximately 90 to 95 employees.
“We want to capture as many markets as we can” for fresh produce, said Baier, who was hired to manage the store with Mike Livermore of Vancouver.
The store, at 13215 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd., will be operated by a group of private investors who purchased the retail site in June 2009, just after Portland-based Joe’s filed bankruptcy and vacated the 70,000-square-foot building.
The property’s assessed value is $4.85 million, slightly below its $5.1 million assessment in 2009, county records show.
In addition to produce, Chuck’s Produce & Artisan Foods will carry packaged specialty foods and include an in-store deli with seating, a bakery and a butcher shop stocked with locally produced meats.
“The decor should have a country store feel to it,” Baier said.
He has hired a few key employees and expects to open the store with about 90 to 95 full- and part-time workers.
General contractor Colson & Colson Construction of Salem, Ore., is in charge of the remodelling and interior work. The store’s selling floor is expected to take up about 27,000 square feet of Joe’s original showroom floor space.
About “Chuck”
Chuck’s Produce was named after the store’s main investor, said Baier. He declined to identify that investor.
County records list the property’s owner as Mill Plain LLC, a limited liability corporation affiliated with Vancouver-based Harvest Developments LLC.
The group also owns the former Evergreen Airport, a 59-acre tract that is situated cater-corner from the Columbia Square retail center where Chuck’s Produce store will be located.
Plans to develop the old airport site were abandoned in late 2008 when developers scrapped a $215 million retail project to be called The Village at Evergreen. The development initially included plans for a natural foods store.
Phone messages were not returned by the airport site’s new owners at Harvest Developments. The LLC purchased the site in August 2009 for $10.4 million. That price was 28.3 percent less than the December 2007 purchase price of $14.5 million.
