91视频

New Seasons Market is partnering with C.E. John Co. to open a new store on the Con-way Commons site in Northwest Portland.

The Portland grocery chain announced Tuesday that it has officially signed on with C.E. John to convert a 28,000-square-foot former freight warehouse into a full-service market. The store will serve as the anchor for C.E. John’s Slabtown Marketplace development of Block 296, which will include 17,500 additional square feet of retail space and approximately 110 housing units.

Tom DiChiara, vice president of development for C.E. John, said the process to secure a market for the area involved nearly two years of work and discussions with many potential grocers.

鈥淲e’re trying to pull the energy of 21st street and 23rd street down into the Con-way District,鈥� DiChiara said. 鈥淗aving New Seasons there is a key ingredient in that, and as they are in other places, they’ve become a real hub of activity in the neighborhoods.鈥�

New Seasons anticipates the store creating 150 new jobs in the neighborhood.

GBD Architects and Holst Architecture are jointly designing New Seasons’ Con-way store shell. The store’s entry at 2170 N.W. Raleigh St. will include a 40-foot-wide pedestrian plaza with boardwalk decking, outdoor seating and space for merchandising and events.

The store’s interior design, which will play up the original wood trusses and sawtooth skylights, will be handled by LRS Architects

鈥淚 think it’s going to be a pretty unique space,鈥� DiChiara said. 鈥淲e’re going to paint a big mural on the old concrete facade to liven it up and create the festival marketplace feel that we’re trying to capture. That’s going to have a very Portland feel to it.鈥�

C.E. John has a design review meeting for its larger development project scheduled for Feb. 21. DiChiara said he hopes New Seasons construction will begin by this fall, so that a soft opening can occur in fall 2014.

鈥淭he goal is to get the grocery store open before Thanksgiving in 2014,鈥� he said.