Eagle Mtn. grocery store a victim of economy

(Daily Herald) Eagle Mountain's much anticipated grocery store has become a victim of the economy.

No meetings or discussions about store construction have been held since last fall, said Steve Miner, president of Market Development Inc., the real estate arm of Associated Foods, who announced the store in 2008 with city officials.

"Today, what I think we know about it is that the retailer, Phillip Cooper, has continued working on his financing," Miner said. "When the credit market had challenges, it affected his ability to get financing. That is where it is at. I think everyone has stepped back from it to allow him to take a look."

It is possible that plans for the store could one day be revived, if the economy changes, he said.

Called Coop's Market, the store was to be the first of that moniker. The name Coop's Market is a derivative of Phillip Cooper, who is president of CWC Inc., a new independent grocery store operator in Utah. Cooper did not return several calls for comment over several months from the Daily Herald.

City officials said they still want a grocery store.

"There are many retailers who want to be in Eagle Mountain and have submitted a letter of intent to the developer of this shopping center, but there needs to be an anchor tenant in place before they can come," said Linda Peterson, spokeswoman for Eagle Mountain.

In May 2008, Eagle Mountain announced the project as the city's first large-scale grocery store, slated to open in the spring of 2009. Today, there is still no grocery store, nor any construction work at the site. The store was to be located on the north side of State Road 73 at Ranches Parkway.

Associated Foods had said the $9 million, 50,000-square-foot store would include a bakery, deli, butcher's counter, indoor pharmacy, drive-up pharmacy and organics. In addition, another 50,000 square feet of smaller stores was to have been built around the grocery store, for tenants likely to include financial services, sit-down and fast food restaurants, pizza, dry cleaners and similar businesses. The grocery store alone had been expected to employ 125 full-time and part-time workers. City officials had said the development would add hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to city tax coffers.

Original Article