POULSBO — Contractors begin site prep Thursday for construction of the Safeway store and gas station at Highway 305 and Lincoln Road.
The site was previously two properties owned by Harrison Medical Center and Olympic Property Group. Olympic Property Group relocated to the Union Bank Building, which it owns, in downtown Poulsbo.
Safeway has contracted with Groat Brothers Inc. for the demolition work, and salvaged much of the materials out of the building to be reused, such as doors, wood trim and paneling, HVAC components, light fixtures, and the asphalt and concrete.
After the salvage work was completed, Safeway granted permission to the Poulsbo Fire Department to use the empty building for rescue training exercises. Demolition is expected to begin on Thursday.
Safeway will build a 59,000-square-foot store and a gas station. According to the company, “The store will include features such as an expanded selection of organic and natural foods, pharmacy with a health and wellness component, floral kiosk, scratch bakery, deli (specialty cheese, sandwich, hot case foods, soup and olive bars, and fresh sushi), expanded wine department with an abundant local selection, Starbucks kiosk and an in-store bank branch.”
“I welcome Safeway to Poulsbo,” Mayor Becky Erickson said in an announcement issued Monday by the company. “Safeway is a great company that works very hard to support local communities. With their new store on Highway 305, they will bring a variety of consumer choices to the citizens of Poulsbo and all of north Kitsap County.”
Highway 305 in the northbound direction will have direct access into the covered parking lot beneath the store. There will also be surface parking in front of the store, accessible from 10th Avenue and Lincoln Road. Safeway will install a traffic signal at the intersection of 10th Avenue and Lincoln Road as part of the project, and will also construct sidewalk and bicycle lane improvements along the Highway 305 frontage.
The store architects are Tiland Schmidt of Portland, the contractor is SD Deacon of Seattle, and the civil engineers are Barghausen Consulting Engineers of Kent.
Safeway anticipates the store will open by December.
Safeway Inc. (www.Safeway.com) is a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America, based on sales. The company operates 1,641 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $44.2 billion in 2012. The company’s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY.
