People have been asking if HyVee is still planning to locate in Columbia Heights. Short answer, “yes” according to Joe Hogeboom, the city’s development director. He said HyVee had construction trailers dropped off at the site recently, and they do own the property.
(The one location they backed out of was a leased site in White Bear Lake. Knowing that they did back out of a site may have people concerned, Hogeboom allowed.)
The grocery retailer is expanding quickly, in 2015-2016 identifying a lot of sites, Hogeboom said. Because they use their own staff to build or remodel stores, the order in which they acquired properties somewhat set the order for building.
In Heights, the renovation work is almost all inside the building so it can be done even when the weather gets cold; that may have had something to do with the delay “but we’re next in line, I’m told now. I hesitate to say exactly when, but a couple of weeks maybe.”
The city has two places on its website where updates will be posted once construction starts. Under “Clock Tower” (the second of three basic parts of the home screen) it appears as a news item. And under “departments,” accessed from the menu near the bottom of the first part of the home screen, go to Community Development, and find “development corner.” The URL is www.ci.columbia-heights.mn.us.