Press release from the French Broad Food Co-op:
We are excited to let you know that our long planned expansion has begun. In 2018, we redirected our focus to save and restore our existing 114 year old buildings. We’ve been hard at work trying to create solutions for growing the store while staying open, protecting parking, and rehabbing such beautiful, old structures.
True to our local-first mission, we’ve built an amazing team of all locals. We wouldn’t be here without them. Our aged buildings and complicated site are no simple feat! Championing the project is Glazer Architecture. Patti Glazer and her team have completed over fifty downtown buildings, specialize in historic structures, and have designed fifteen grocery stores. Alongside them is Harmony Construction, a local general contractor with forty years experience and a long list of commercial and mixed use projects in downtown. Other partners on the site, stormwater, and structural needs are Civil Design Concepts and Medlock and Associates.
We are thankful for the entire team for their incredible expertise and love of the Co+op. We also appreciate your patience as Owners as we poured over your thousands of pieces of input and sticker votes to ensure we were crafting a larger Co+op with everyone’s vision at heart.
To stay open and keep providing you with Co+op goodness, we will have 3 separate phases of construction. First up is enclosing our patio and creating a new checkout area with even better social distancing and protections. We’ll also be restoring the aging brick, painting the building, doing interior updates, and expanding product lines.
What to expect:
* No interruptions to your shopping experience
* A fenced off area around the patio and entering at the front doors
* Occasional one lane access to the parking lot (we’ll guide you in)
* Several months of construction, some extra noise, and a new roof
* A shiny new entrance and curbside/walk up/ pick up window
* Additional registers for speedier check out and better serviceOnce complete, we’ll move on to phase 2 in early 2021 which includes overhauling our warehouse, a new commercial kitchen, expanding our restaurant wholesale program, growing our special order options, and restoring another aging building. We will be able to maintain all of our existing tenants by working cooperatively on staging and changes. We’ll keep you updated as phase 2 approaches and how phase 3 will roll out.
As a reminder, we are open 7 days a week with adjusted hours for COVID. We are open from 11am – 6pm. We also offer curbside pickup and a new, robust online store. We are requiring masks and we have options of sanitizer or gloves as you enter.
Thank you for supporting our community owned French Broad Food Co+op!
Cooperatively,
Sage Turner
Finance and Project Manager
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