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Downtown Edmonton has entered the express lane towards debuting its first major grocery store in years, starting with the newly announced Loblaws City Market set to open in 2020. ICE District Properties announced on Monday morning that the popular national grocery chain will be an anchor tenant within the highly anticipated "Block BG" development.
Located on the site of the former downtown Greyhound station, just west of Edmonton two new tallest Towers - the JW Marriott Tower and Stantec Tower - the urban grocer will take 22,000 square feet over two floors of the building podium.
Tim Shipton, Senior Vice President of Katz Group, speaking about the announcement today: "This is really a transformational moment for our city, so to add a grocery store, which the downtown community has said 'that's exactly what we want, that's exactly what we need to bring more residents in, to have a walkable city,' is very exciting for us to announce this today."
"We're focused on ICE District adding over 1,000 residents to the downtown core," added Shipton, "and one of the things the community has been asking for time and time again is amenities for lifestyle and livability, and at the core of that is a grocery store."
Asked about the future "Tower B" long planned for the site - a source of much speculation in our discussion Forum - Shipton indicated that the podium for Block BG contains the foundation and all the structural elements for a tower. "Currently we're assessing market conditions, we're still 18 months from opening the full campus on phase 1, to me it's a matter of when, not if, but we need to make sure we're in sync with the market before we start construction on the tower."
Construction on the podium is slated to begin immediately, with completion in the fall of 2020.
SkyriseEdmonton will be sure to follow progress on this project as it progresses. Want to learn more? Check our project database for more information and photos, or join the conversation in our discussion forum. What do you think of Loblaws City Market coming to ICE District? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.
