LEBANON — A group of city officials say they’re working to drum up support to draw a new grocery store downtown, more than a year after the neighborhood’s sole grocer closed its doors.
Members of the Lebanon Economic Vitality Exchange Committee, or EVEC, say they’re reaching out to several companies capable of expanding downtown, including Trader Joe’s and Mac’s Market in Woodstock.
However, they’re most optimistic about recent talks with the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society, which runs the Co-op Food Stores.
“The Co-op seems to be a natural fit with their deep knowledge of the Upper Valley,” City Councilor Karen Liot Hill, an EVEC member, said Wednesday. “They have versatility that might be valuable in thinking about what kind of market would fit within downtown.”
Co-op spokesman Allan Reetz and Liot Hill both stressed this week that talks are in the early stages, with no concrete plans in place. But any company moving downtown could draw on existing demand for fresh produce and other groceries that’s gone unmet since Lebanon Village Marketplace ended a 13-year run last June, Liot Hill said.
The 13,379-square-foot storefront next to the downtown fire station has been vacant since then, leading EVEC members to take action.
“There’s a lot of people that used to use the market,” Liot Hill said.
Among those were seniors living at the nearby Rogers House apartments. With the market on the other side of Colburn Park, many people took advantage of the short walk to stock up on goods, resident Amos Hoyt said Thursday.
“Everybody used to use it. Some of them complained about it but they still used it,” he said. “It’s been inconvenient not to have that. A lot of people that live here don’t have transportation or get around much.”
Now, the residents need to find a ride to the supermarkets along Route 12A or Miracle Mile, or the Lebanon Co-op in Centerra Marketplace.
When the Lebanon Village Marketplace closed, the nearby Upper Valley Senior Center increased its free transportation to Route 12A and Centerra, according to director Jill Vahey. And while buses leave Tuesday through Friday, she said, seniors still miss the convenience of a walkable market.
“They were devastated,” Vahey said. “It was much closer than going to the convenience stores here in town.”
Lebanon’s downtown firefighters also were frequent customers at the market, which provided many of the crew’s coffee and food.
“We used it for all of our meals,” Lebanon firefighter Matt Moore said. “We’re here 24 hours a day, so we often buy breakfast as a group and would go over and buy eggs and breakfast meats.”
They would also turn to the market when lunch and dinner went unplanned or when firefighters were out late, he said.
“It’s been tough because a lot of times we are not in the station as a group, so trying to get food and plan meals can be difficult,” Moore said.
Still, if a new grocery store opened up, it would likely have to contend with the same challenges that Lebanon Village Marketplace saw. The store’s size meant it was often too small to compete with larger grocery stores in the city and too big to take on the convenience stores. The 2 Mascoma St. property includes 88 common parking spaces and is for lease at $8 per square foot, according to a commercial real estate listing. The building is owned by Caro Properties, which has offices in Nashua and Boston.
“You can’t run a grocery store where customers are buying only one or two items,” owner Rich Bill told the Valley News last year. “They were treating it like a convenience store.”
But Liot Hill believes that an organization with the skills of the Co-op could weather those forces. It’s already had success with a small store in White River Junction, she said, and has the staff to make a similar move in Lebanon.
“I’m very optimistic that a downtown market could do very well in Lebanon,” she said.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603 -727-3223.