Upscale supermarket in Kelowna’s North End now set for spring opening
When Don Pham bought the old OK Builders Supply warehouse on Ellis Street in the fall of 2019 he had plans to convert it to a grocery store in Kelowna’s North End by the following summer.
That timeline has now been pushed off to April 2023.
Dave Blackwood, site superintendent with Plan B Contractors, told iNFOnews.ca that, given the supply and labour demands in Kelowna right now, there’s no guarantee that date will be met.
READ MORE: Owner of Oriental Supermarket plans to open independent grocery store in Kelowna’s North End
The first delay in moving the project forward was the need to rezone the property from industrial to commercial, which took some months. Then the interior had to be gutted and asbestos removed.
The building permit has been issued, Blackwood said, and up next up will be cutting into the concrete floor in order to install plumbing underneath.
“It will be similar to Urban Fare in the Mission,” Blackwood said. “It will be a more upscale grocery store.”
Plans call for the concrete wall facing Ellis Street to be opened up for windows and a second-floor mezzanine looking towards what likely to become the Waterscapes highrises.
It will be a few months yet before those exterior changes will be visible to people passing by.
In the meantime, an Ellis Street Market Facebook page has been created with renderings of what the finished product will look like.
The new grocery store will be 16,000 square feet, which is 2,000 square feet larger than the popular Lakeview Market in the South Pandosy area of the city.
The Ellis Street location is just north of the One Water Street towers and just south of the Tolko Industries mill site that is currently in the process of a major redevelopment plan.
Pham, who owns the Oriental Supermarket and two Yamato restaurants in the Kelowna and West Kelowna, could not be reached for comment.
Blackwood described Pham as being very committed to the Ellis Street Market project but he is also very busy managing his other businesses.
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