City Grocers opened Wednesday, October 27th in the ground floor of the Bell Lofts located at 920 Olive Street. City Grocers is a two-level, 6,500-square-foot, full-service grocery store. The store offers fresh produce, frozen foods, a meat counter, and a full-service kitchen for breakfast, lunch and dinner with seating available in the mezzanine level.

The new City Grocers in Downtown St. Louis opened a few weeks ago and is an instant success story. The store is experiencing so much business everyday and it is wonderful to see.

Another market has opened downtown too on Washington Avenue called Lucas Park Market. It is very upscale and trendy, like City Grocers, just on a smaller scale. Great to see all the new retail, restuarants, and markets flowing into Downtown St. Louis every month. Downtown is really re-establishing itself quickly!

New website just announced for City Grocers!

<A HREF="http://www.city-grocers.com/">www.city-grocers.com</A>



Finally, a full-service grocery store serving people who work or live in downtown St. Louis! Includes groceries, fresh produce, bakery, coffee & Espresso, ready-to-eat meals, lunch dining with second floor seating overlooking the city streets, carry-out and catering. Also offers wine & beer, greeting cards, bath & body items and magazines.

I know from reading the downtown partnerships website yesterday that they are required to keep access to City Grocers, but that doesn't mean they would actually stay open. I can see why no one would want to be shopping there right now. They have to walk through a cloud of dust to get to the store. Hopefully they decide to stay open during the demo.

If this is true, it would be an unfortunate circumstance, but sorry, while City Grocers is a much-needed asset downtown and I support it, the demolition of the Century Building was planned lonnnggg before City Grocers.



Someone should have assessed the risks or considered another opening date beforehand. I said over two years ago that demolition of the Century was inevitable. The writing has been on the wall for some time. There's no way the City Grocers people didn't know about the issue with the Century. From what I've seen, it seems like downtown planners were accommodating as possible to City Grocers.



With demolition comes dust, noise, and street closures.



I've lived in two major cities outside of St. Louis where demolitions and streetscape projects in a CBD never pleased all. Businesses get strangled during such projects, and demolition of a structure in such an area is never convenient. This happens in every city in America that's undergoing a transformation. You can't please everybody. OPO developers have even modified demolition hours to please residents.



While I don't think I would like external forces negatively impacting my business either, what's being done is unavoidable now and has been in the works for eons.



If the temporary closure happens, City Grocers could be hurting themselves in the long run. For Gods sake, they just opened. They should at least modify their hours, instead of closing, then go back to regular hours once demolition is complete. Helter Skelter opening and closing is annoying and the uncertainty of stable operations could scare off patrons.

I wonder what City Grocer is doing to tell people they are indeed open for business.



If I was running the place I'd have a flyer or something in every tenants mailbox in each of those office buildings saying "We're Open" and would plater signs all over the place showing people how to get to my front door



Not saying they should have to do that, but you've got to make the best out of a bad situation, and closing temporarily doesn't sound like the best option.

City Grocers has announced they are NOT closing during construction.



SO EVERYONE - go there - shop or eat there!!! TODAY! Tell everyone they are open during construction of this district.

I went there yesterday - decent crowd there, but not as many customers as the previous times I've shopped there.

Went today and enjoyed a delicious Albacore Tuna Sandwich on sourdough - made to order! MMMMM

Also had some hot fried rice from their new hot items in the deli... very nice.

The crowd was steady and quite busy - beautiful day brings people streetside too.



GO!



http://city-grocers.com/

Nice!



I'm off Friday and Monday, so I'll be making at least one return trip...

Thanks "matguy" for clearing that up so quickly. I also learned that Craig Heller had confirmed the store has been negatively affected by the demolition. However, they are not closing for this or any other reason.

http://www.bizjournals.com/ct/rc/30414/ ... ily33.html



From the St. Louis Business Journal:

LATEST NEWS

9:44 AM CST Wednesday

City Grocers to get Mayor's Spirit of St. Louis award



City Grocers in downtown St. Louis will receive Mayor Francis Slay's Spirit of St. Louis award Wednesday.



The award recognizes businesses that make major expansions or improvements to their existing locations in the city, businesses that open or relocate to the city and certain major city projects.



The 6,500 square-foot grocery store, owned by Craig Heller and Rance Baker, is the only full-service grocery store downtown. Although it has been open for several months, the store will hold its grand opening Wednesday.

From the St. Louis Commerce Magazine.







This is CITY GROCERS Downtown

So, approaching being open a year and a half, how do you all think City Grocer's has panned out? I'm probably in there about 3 times a week and find myself more stopping in for breakfast or lunch, a mid-afternoon snack or to grab a few odds and ends. When time to do major shopping I still hit one of the big chains (wish I didn't have to). I love the place as it serves my needs fairly well but would like to see an expanded produce and fruit section. Any other thoughts?



Oh yea, I found myself stopping in last summer before Cardinal games to pick up something to munch on during the game. Thought it would have been great had they maybe pre-packaged like "game-day" lunches or dinners that were boxed up and ready to go. You know, maybe a sandwich, bag of peanuts and a cookie or something like that. Bet they would have sold well! Plus think it would be awesome to broadcast the games on their outdoor speakers.

OU812 wrote: Plus think it would be awesome to broadcast the games on their outdoor speakers.

GASP! You mean without the expressed written concent of Major League Baseball!

It looks to me like the place is doing good business. I stop in about once or twice a week, usually at night after all the downtown commuters have left the city. There always seems to be several people shopping at that time. While the selection is somewhat limited, I think they offer a good variety of products and some nice ?ready-made? foods. Maybe they will expand their selection as more people move in the area. I would love to see enough business to keep the place open 24hours.

stlpcsolutions wrote:Do they stock organic foods? I shop at the Schnucks in Hampton Village because they stock organic food.

Yea, they have some organic items there. Definitely not isles and isles though as they are pretty limited to their space. But it does seem that a lot of their product does lean to the healthy side.

OU812 wrote:So, approaching being open a year and a half, how do you all think City Grocer's has panned out? I'm probably in there about 3 times a week and find myself more stopping in for breakfast or lunch, a mid-afternoon snack or to grab a few odds and ends. When time to do major shopping I still hit one of the big chains (wish I didn't have to). I love the place as it serves my needs fairly well but would like to see an expanded produce and fruit section. Any other thoughts?



Oh yea, I found myself stopping in last summer before Cardinal games to pick up something to munch on during the game. Thought it would have been great had they maybe pre-packaged like "game-day" lunches or dinners that were boxed up and ready to go. You know, maybe a sandwich, bag of peanuts and a cookie or something like that. Bet they would have sold well! Plus think it would be awesome to broadcast the games on their outdoor speakers.

Those are some great ideas. I'd love to be able to walk down to CG on my lunch break and enjoy a sandwich while listening to the ball game. I know they've done an outdoor bbq on a few occasions, such as the Final Four - maybe they will do the same on game days.

CG has become a daily stop on my way in/out of the city. There was an article in the PD last week on grocery stores DT, and it looks like we're 3-5 years away from having the critical mass to support a full-scale operation. I would dearly love to see a Trader Joe's or a Whole Foods DT, but at this point, I'll take what I can get and CG fills that need very well! Even when we get a larger store, I still think CG will do well with the Syndicate and other loft developments right around the corner.

Here's the URL to the article you mention...



http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/lifest ... enDocument

CITY GROCERS NEWS:



New customers feed need for City Grocers to grow



Store will occupy 14,000 square feet in new location

St. Louis Business Journal

by Lisa R. Brown



Rance Baker knew when City Grocers opened that it would need to expand.



City Grocers, the only grocery store in downtown St. Louis, will more than double in size when it moves across the street to the Syndicate Trust Building in fall 2007.

At its new location on the ground floor at 915 Olive St., the full-service grocery store will have expanded services, including a pharmacy, an in-house butcher and a larger bakery. The new site also will feature cooking and wine classes.



City Grocers' staff of 32 employees will double with the move.



Since September 2004, City Grocers has leased 6,500 square feet on the ground floor of the Bell Lofts building at 920 Olive. "We knew when we opened two years ago, the store would need to grow and evolve as more people moved downtown," City rocers co-owner Rance Baker said.



After the move, the grocery store will occupy 14,000 square feet in the Syndicate Trust Building. The cost to move and buildout the new location will be less than $1 million, Baker said.



The Syndicate Trust and Bell Lofts buildings are owned by St. Louis-based LoftWorks, led by Craig Heller. Heller also is co-owner of City Grocers with Baker and Mark Leverenz, a senior consultant with Brown Smith Wallace LLC.



Partnering with Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates, LoftWorks is in the midst of an $85 million redevelopment of the upper floors of the Syndicate Trust Building into 102 condos and 70 apartments.



"Downtown St. Louis is experiencing an influx of property owners," said Brian Gorecki, Sherman Associates' project manager for the Syndicate Trust Building. "The transition of City Grocers to the first floor of the Syndicate benefits not only the residents of the Syndicate but gives all residents downtown expanded food choices within their neighborhood in one location."



For its first 15 months in business, City Grocers operated without making a profit, Baker said. In recent months, though, the grocery store has begun to operate in the black. Baker said one of the goals of opening City Grocers was to draw new residents downtown.



"When I started looking at downtown St. Louis three years ago, there was no one on the streets. It has exponentially grown since then," said Baker, a Denver resident and owner/president of Creative Food Concepts, a retail food consultancy.



When City Grocers opened, 60 percent of its business came from downtown workers coming in for lunch. Today more people are shopping for grocery items, and more than half of City Grocers' sales are made after 3 p.m., Baker said.



Baker said to meet increased demand, City Grocers will likely extend the grocery store's hours past 9 p.m. before the move. The new City Grocers location also will have a salad bar, a juice bar and an expanded wine selection.



lrbrown@bizjournals.com