New Kendall Yards grocery store won’t be part of chain

A new grocery expected to open early next year just north of the Monroe Street Bridge will not be affiliated with a chain.

The store, which will be on the eastern edge of Kendall Yards, will be called My Fresh Market, said Jim Frank, CEO of Greenstone Corp., which is developing the booming former rail yard northwest of downtown Spokane.

Kendall Yards officials filed a permit to build the grocery store last week.

Frank said the store will be an “urban, neighborhood-based grocery store that connects with local farmers and ranchers.”

The store will be about 26,000 square feet, about 4,000 square feet larger than the downtown Grocery Outlet, a former Safeway store.

Frank said construction will start on the northwest corner of Monroe and Summit Parkway in August. The store will open next spring.

A second floor of the building will be home to a cooking school, and the building likely will include a wine club.

The store will feature many ready-to-eat foods, such as pizza, sushi and sandwiches. Frank said it will be similar to Metropolitan Market in Seattle.

“The millennial generation in particular is focused on going out together and sharing food together,” Frank said.

He said Kendall Yards considered adding additional stories for apartments, but venting and fire code requirements made it too difficult.

The store will carry a range of items that would allow a family to do its full weekly shopping there, but it will have a smaller selection than an average Safeway, Frank said.

“The whole grocery business is evolving,” he said.

Some renderings of the building showed the name “Trader Joe’s” on its front, and rumors circulated that Kendall Yards was recruiting Whole Foods.

Frank said in the past four years, Kendall Yards officials have met with other grocery chain representatives, including Whole Foods. He said Whole Foods is too expensive for the Spokane market, and that Kendall Yards needs a broader range in its grocery store than what Trader Joe’s offers.

My Fresh Market will be owned by Frank and a couple of other partners whom he declined to identify.

“That’s our goal to serve not only Kendall Yards, but the balance of the West Central neighborhood,” Frank said. “We hope this will be a catalyst for additional residential development downtown.”