City council to decide on requests from downtown grocery store developer

A Vancouver developer is one step closer to opening up a grocery store in downtown Saskatoon.

There hasn’t been one in the area for nearly 20 years, and Arbutus Properties’ plan is to open an 18,000-square-foot Pitchfork Market + Kitchen at Midtown Mall either at the end of 2022 or in early 2023.

During Monday’s transportation committee meeting, Arbutus Properties director of planning Murray Totland addressed councillors and told them their planning is far enough along that they’re “dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.”

However, there are still some outstanding issues that Totland said need to be addressed, including a tax abatement request and significant improvements to the Auditorium Avenue and Idylwyld Drive intersection. That’s where Totland said most of the store’s traffic would come from.

“We think it could be upwards of 80 per cent of our customers will likely access our store via Auditorium Avenue, because that’s the primary access point … and quite likely exit through that intersection as well,” he said.

The tax abatement request is still being addressed with Midtown Mall.

Councillors voted unanimously to approve administration’s recommendation that Arbutus Properties and city administration identify a “build-out percent complete” threshold, and once that has been met, improvements to the intersection can begin.

The matter will now go to city council.