SANTA CLARA – The new Harmons Neighborhood Grocer being built in Santa Clara is getting closer to completion and hiring for the store is underway.
“We are excited,” Santa Clara City Manager Ed Dickie said. “We see progress every day. We are hearing from a lot of residents that are excited, too.”
The store will be Santa Clara’s first large employer, Dickie said, with 250-300 workers. About 250 people submitted applications at a recent hiring event, Frank Lundquist, vice president of store development, said.
More than 100 people are working at the construction site and the store is on track to open in mid-February, Lundquist said. Employees will begin stocking the store shelves in late January.
“The site’s progressing and the solar will probably go in the first part of February,” Lundquist said.
This is the first Harmons store to utilize solar power, he said, and about 40 percent of the store’s electricity will be provided by solar panels.
The store will be 67,500 square feet and will have an attached 8,500-square-foot retail pad, as well as an adjacent fuel station and the potential for more retail buildings on the site in the future.
The roof of the new store will have ranges for the cooking school along with a chef’s station, Lundquist said, and there will be seating on the rooftop and on a balcony.
The store will have an artist and dietician on staff and certified organic produce available. Two conference rooms will be available for events and customers will have access to a full-service pharmacy and a customer-service center that includes a post office.
Ground was broken for the new Harmons location June 22 in a ceremony celebrated by four generations of the Harmon family.
The Harmons grocery store chain is in its 83rd year and has been operating in St. George for almost 30 years, Bob Harmon said in an earlier interview. The family is excited to be opening a store in Santa Clara.
The new store was originally set to open in 2010 and the site preparation work had been underway when the recession hit, Lundquist said in an earlier interview, and the project was put on hold. The delay allowed the company to purchase the property rather than lease it.
The project was designed with buildings on the perimeter and parking in the middle to minimize the possibility of vehicle headlights shining into the windows of neighboring houses.
In addition to the Santa Clara location, Harmons has 16 stores in Utah and another under construction in the Traverse Mountain area of Utah County.
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Great! Glad to see they are “getting there.” Now, speaking of grocery stores, is there any new information on Smith’s? I understood they were due to go in on Mall Drive. I see Lin’s is coming right along with their building, but don’t see anything under way for Smith’s. Are they still on board for a new store, or did they pull out of this due to Lin’s being so close?
As far as I’m concerned, there is no such thing as too many supermarkets in the area. It keeps them all on their toes when there is competition.