$750,000 project aims to bring more products to newer location

Corvallis' homegrown natural foods grocery store is about to have a growth spurt.

First Alternative Co-op soon will begin a $750,000, eight-month building project to double the size of its north store at the corner of Northwest 29th Street and Grant Avenue.

"If someone was giving me $750,000, I'd be stoked," said north store Manager Evelyn Hall. "When you're trying to double the size of your grocery store, it's pretty tight."

Plans include expanding the store into nearly all of the adjacent space on the corner of Grant and 29th, including reconfiguring the space occupied by the store's current location and then adding the space occupied by businesses in the shopping center and the building that formerly housed Miller Paint and later Your Green Home.

First Alternative now occupies 3,500 square feet of retail space. When the expansion is finished next spring, the store will be almost 7,000 square feet. Most of the new space will offer products already sold at the co-op's south Corvallis location on south Third Street.

"It's demand for the same stuff," said Michele Adams, the co-op's general manager. "People ask us why can't you carry the same stuff as the south store?" That's mostly due to the size of the location, formerly a Dari-Mart convenience store. Early-morning deliveries arrive in the store parking lot, tangling traffic until they are unloaded. That's going to change after the expansion.

Of course, turning a collection of different retail buildings into one large facility involves some challenges - such as a drop of 18 inches between the existing store and its new space to the east. A similar drop occurs on the way to what will be the store's new stockroom.

Plans include laying three inches of concrete over the existing floors to even out the floor levels to within allowable variation, as specified by state and city building codes. From there, ramps will be installed to provide access by disabled shoppers.

"We'll have lots of ramps in our store," Hall said. "It's going to be the funky, fresh look."

By expanding the store and standardizing its inventory, Adams said, the Co-op hopes to expand its ownership base, currently holding steady at about 6,000.

For a $70 refundable price, co-op owners buy a share in the grocery store. Money raised provides the business with working capital for buying inventory, acquiring equipment and financing operations.

"The last time we had a spike in new owners was when we opened the north store," Adams said. "We think it'll spike again when we expand the store."

North store neighbors Magic Mirror Beauty Salon and Northwest Graphic Imaging will start moving this weekend. The salon will relocate a few yards to the east in another co-op-owned storefront. Northwest Graphic plans to move downtown on Fourth Street by the Whiteside Theater.

Hall said construction shouldn't affect shopping at the store, because it'll be focused on the new spaces, with a brief exposure when the buildings are joined.

"It'll mostly be behind the scenes," she said. "There will probably be about a month there when our employees will hear concrete sawing in their sleep, though."

If you go

WHAT: First Alternative Co-op north store expansion open house

WHEN: 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 12

WHERE: First Alternative Co-op north store, corner of Northwest 29th Street and Grant Avenue

Matt Neznanski can be reached at 758-9518 or matt.neznanski@lee.net.