The Kings Contrivance Village Center in Columbia will go without a grocery store for more than a year, but it will be graced with the posh super-grocery store Harris Teeter when construction is complete.
“It?s a pleasure to go into a Harris Teeter. You can talk to people who actually care if you get good food,” said King?s Contrivance Board Member Phil Marcus.
A 57,000-square-foot branch of the Southern grocery store chain will replace the village center?s 40,000-square-foot Safeway, which closed June 3.
The Safeway and a neighboring site of a former Friendly?s restaurant, which closed about 5 years ago, will be demolished to make room for the new store. Construction may start by the end of July, and is expected to be finished by fall 2007.
“It?s a nice upscale market that is going to draw customers from all over,” said Kathie van Nostrand, Marketing Director for Kimco Realty, which owns Columbia?s Village Centers.
Wegmans, another upscale grocery store, said it is preparedfor the extra competition.
“Whenever a new store selling the same products goes up nearby, we focus on those things that set us apart. We absolutely feel that our employees set us apart,” said Jo Natale, director of media relations for Wegmans, which has a store in Cockeysville.
