Keizertimes., March 18, 2016, Image 1

SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 38, NO. 14
SECTION A
MARCH 18, 2016
$1.00
How Keizer ended up with
ONE
G RO ¢ ER Y
$ TOR 3
Koho on
the mend
PAGE A2
Meet a MHS
beatboxer
PAGE A6
and the future prospects of more
By CRAIG MURPHY
the group had more than 1,300
Of the Keizertimes
members.
Amid rumors of a Walmart
On the surface, it seems a
opening soon in Keizer Station, given Keizer will get a second
the Roth's grocery store in grocery store, sooner rather than
Schoolhouse Square was closed later. The city has a population of
in the spring of 2012.
approximately 37,000 residents
While that was a big loss, at and growing, as evidenced
least Keizer still
by
multiple
had two grocery
new
housing,
“It's all
stores.
apartment and
Until
last about the
senior
living
year, that is. The
projects recently
former Albertsons demographics.” c o m p l e t e d
at
Creekside
or
currently
Shopping Center — George Grabenhorst underway.
was converted to
On multiple
a Haggen, as the
occasions, mayor
Washington-based
Cathy Clark has
grocery
store
thrown out this
chain undertook
phrase: “The fi rst
an
ambitious
person to get
growth strategy
money and plans
to take advantage
together to say
of the merger
‘we’re going to
between Safeway
open a store here’
and Albertsons. Plans fell apart is going to get our money.”
spectacularly, however, and by the
The grocery store topic
end of September Haggen was brought a large crowd of about
closed.
70 people to a town hall meeting
So then there was just one in January hosted by state Rep.
grocery store left in Keizer, Bill Post at the Keizer Fire
Safeway.
District building.
Almost immediately, there
There was much optimism
were cries for another grocery expressed at the meeting that
store to come. So far, the most Keizer would soon have another
common request has been for grocery store.
a WinCo. That was, by far, the
“The market will correct
leading vote getter in a Keizertimes itself,” John Morgan, Keizer's
reader poll last fall and a “Keizer fi rst director of Community
Wants WinCo” group was started Development, said at that
on Facebook. As of Monday, meeting. “Vacant storefronts are
What grocers could
come and where
would they go?
By CRAIG MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
When the idea of a new gro-
cery store in Keizer is brought
up, two main
questions typical-
ly come up: what
store and what
location?
For months,
many Keizerites
have been re-
questing a WinCo. The former
Roth's space in Schoolhouse
Square is too small, while the
former
Albertsons/Haggen
space in the Creekside Shopping
Center, at about 35,000 square
feet, is also much smaller than a
typical WinCo.
George Gra-
benhorst, a vet-
eran realtor and
senior advisor
with Sperry Van
Ness Commer-
cial Advisors in
Salem, said that's
about half the needed size for the
Idaho-based chain.
Please see COME, Page A11
KEIZERTIMES/Lyndon A. Zaitz
A lone shopping cart sits in front of the shuttered Albertsons/
Haggen grocery store, which remains boarded up.
costing businesses money. There
are 15,000 rooftops in Keizer.
There’s an overwhelming market
demand and opportunity. We just
need patience. I’d
bet at least one
(vacant grocery
store building)
will be fi lled in
the next year.”
That meeting
helped lead to
this
in-depth
look at the
grocery
store
issue and the
challenges
– as well as
opportunities
– in terms of
Keizer landing
another grocery
store.
Simply put,
the problem isn’t
merely a town of
37,000 people
only having one
store.
George
Grabenhorst, a
veteran realtor
and senior advisor with Sperry
Van Ness Commercial Advisors
in Salem who spoke at the
January town hall, is a fourth-
generation realtor who’s been in
the business for 30 years and has
sold land used for grocery stores.
According to Grabenhorst,
companies
looking
at
opening
a
grocery store in
the area look at
the whole area –
not just Keizer.
“They look
at factors like
the population
of the area, the
median income,
what
are
peoples' habits
and where they
look to do
their shopping,”
he said. “It’s
all about the
demographics.”
There is also
the profi t issue.
Grabenhorst
said
stores
typically try to
operate at a 3
percent profi t.
Joe Gilliam, president of the
Northwest Grocers Association,
Please see GROCERY, Page A13
The basics of
lacrosse
PAGE B1
Lady Celts
take fourth
PAGE B2