 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Hy-Vee to spare MLK store
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Months of criticism from residents and community activists appears to have led to a compromise by Hy-Vee over a Des Moines store.
The Harding Hills Hy-Vee will close only temporarily while it is made into a smaller store in its existing building, officials announced Monday.
The West Des Moines-based grocer made a similar decision in March, saying it would create a smaller store in Lincoln, Neb., to serve a neighborhood where a full-sized store will close.
The Lincoln store is slated to be about one-fourth the size of a regular Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee officials on Monday didn't say how big the smaller Harding Hills store would be but said it would still provide staples.
The renovation will not happen for at least a year, said Hy-Vee spokeswoman Chris Friesleben.
Hy-Vee officials said in September that the Harding Hills store would probably close in late 2009 after a new store opens in Beaverdale. Store patrons and activists said the closing of the store, at 3330 Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, would leave north-central Des Moines residents without a nearby grocery store. Hy-Vee officials have said the Harding Hills operation is not profitable.
A Citizens for Community Improvement official said Monday that Hy-Vee's decision didn't change her group's views, because the store will still have to close during the renovation. "It would be a detriment to the community to close the store just for a day," said Sharon Zanders-Ackiss, Des Moines CCI director.
She noted that stores at other locations have remained open during construction projects.
Jane Magers, who lives in the Mondamin Presidential Neighborhood, reacted to the store's projected closing by standing in front of it with a protest sign for five days a week from Valentine's Day through March. She has shopped at the store since it opened in 1986.
"I'm ecstatic. It's everything I've hoped for," Magers said of the change in Hy-Vee's plans. "I've got to admit that it shows what a few dedicated people can do."
Friesleben said building the Beaverdale Hy-Vee would take a year. The timetable for renovating the Harding Hills store will not be set until the Beaverdale store is nearly finished, she said.
"It will have to close for a short time so we can remodel the inside," Friesleben said. The store now has about 33,000 square feet, making it about half the size of the new Beaverdale store.
Hy-Vee officials have not yet discussed what they will do with the remainder of the Harding Hills building, which the company owns, Friesleben said.
One legislator called Hy-Vee's decision a "win-win situation."
"When Hy-Vee talks about 'there's a smile in every aisle,' I'm pretty sure when this word gets out, people in my district will be very happy," said Democratic Rep. Wayne Ford of Des Moines.
|
