by Roger Stonebanks, citizen reporter

The last day of operation for Tru Value Foods in Cordova Bay Plaza is Friday Feb. 24 after which it will close its doors. The supermarket is offering 50 per cent off non-perishable items. The closure will leave the community with the just one grocer – the Red Barn Market at Mattick’s Farm for fresh produce, meats, deli and groceries.

The pending closure of Tru Value Foods was announced in early January to be “no later than March 31” and was reported at the time by Saanich Voice Online. The actual closure date was to depend on food supplies.

“With proposed future development coming to the Cordova Bay Plaza it has become necessary for Tru Value Foods to respond to the current market conditions,” said Tru Value Foods owner Phil Greenhalgh.

“We are excited to see what the future holds for the plaza,” he added, thanking his staff and the Cordova Bay community for five years as the anchor tenant at the plaza succeeding Food Forum.

An amended development permit application was submitted to the District of Saanich in January for a new commercial-residential plaza that would – if approved by council – have 86 condos, some shops, a bank and a food store of around 17,000 square feet compared with the present 7,500 square feet supermarket, five shops (three of them are now vacant), a bank and no residential component. Two of the proposed buildings are for four storeys. The present strip mall, built in 1960, is single storey.

The application is for an amended development permit because a development permit was approved by Saanich council in 1999 for 16 condos, shops and a grocery of around 17,000 square feet. The project never went ahead because of underground gasoline pollution from a nearby lot that had housed a gasoline station. The plaza has the zoning for its proposed development.

See earlier SVO news story HERE

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