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City Market requests fourth delay for new Carbondale store

Ryan Summerlin
rsummerlin@postindependent.com
This shows the footprint of the new City Market proposed for Carbondale, but delayed for a fourth time.
Provided |

Capital spending challenges for grocery giant Kroger continue to delay the proposed City Market for Carbondale, but supporters believe the project will go on eventually.

City Market, one of Kroger’s brands, is requesting a fourth extension to record the subdivision plat for its proposed new grocery store and fuel mart in Carbondale.

Joel Starbuck, division real estate manager for King Soopers/City Market, wrote to the Board of Trustees that “unforeseen capital reallocation by The Kroger Co. remains impactful on the timing of the closing on the subject property.”



Late last year, Cincinnati-based Kroger, the nation’s largest grocery chain, dramatically cut its planned capital spending, started buying back $500 million in stock and froze capital improvements until the end of 2016 following a drop in food prices nationwide.

Carbondale trustees will be asked to grant a 60-day extension during their regular meeting Tuesday evening, which is also the current deadline for the plat. The new deadline would be for April 28.



Kelli McGannon, a City Market spokeswoman based in Grand Junction, repeated Monday that she does not anticipate the project to be scratched, despite the delays.

Last month McGannon said she was confident the company would meet its Feb. 28 deadline to record the subdivision plat.

Nevertheless, Town Manager Jay Harrington said the developer has represented that it still anticipates a spring construction start.

This project, just across Main Street from the existing City Market, would build a 60,000-square-foot grocery store, what the project architect called one of the greenest stores Kroger has ever built, a fueling station and a nearly 10,000-square-foot retail store adjacent to the north. Occupants of the adjacent store have not been named.

Throughout these delays, Harrington has emphasized that the town’s review process has been moving right along.

The only outstanding step toward that end is that the town hasn’t received the covenants for the property, which is one of the final items the town must review before the plats are ready to record, he said Monday.

The building permit is ready to issue. And the developer has been meeting with contractors.

“It’s pretty close to moving forward, but they don’t have ownership of the property yet,” said Harrington. “They have represented to us that they’re still shooting for a spring construction. We’ll see how that all adds up.”


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