Brandon divided about supermarket proposal
Toolbox
By Gordon Dritschilo STAFF WRITER - Published: January 20, 2010
BRANDON — One school of thought holds that a proposed Hannaford would be great for downtown.
Another considers it a potential disaster.
Both notions were in evidence Monday as representatives of Hannaford appeared before about 70 people at the Otter Valley Union High School auditorium.
The supermarket would serve as an anchor tenant at a proposed shopping center at the corner of Route 7 and Nickerson Road. The proposal is before the Development Review Board.
Last month, Hannaford announced it would buy the Grand Union in downtown Brandon, along with another Grand Union elsewhere in the state. A spokesman for the company said they planned to run the store as a Hannaford until the new facility opened and then move down the road.
"It's been demonstrated to us the viability of downtown is threatened when you have a strip mall at the edge of town," resident Buzz Racine told the company's representatives. "We'd love to have you, but we'd love to have you in town."
Several others echoed the latter sentiment, and some asked the store's representatives why they could not stay downtown if they were buying the Grand Union.
Lisa Miller, Hannaford's vice president for real estate development, told the audience that the company saw the purchase as an opportunity to get to know the community and develop a core group of employees. She said they hope to finalize the deal and start business in early March.
Miller said while the company had no intention of staying in the spot, it would have to "re-evaluate" if the new facility were denied permits. They did not think a shop that size was economically viable, she said, though the two years they expect to be there awaiting the new facility could give them evidence to the contrary.
Resident Nancy Jakiela said if people were so concerned about losing the Grand Union, they should have been shopping there. She said she and many other people she knows go out of town for better prices, quality and selection.
"A lot of us who are pro-Hannaford are not here tonight," she said.
A handful of people argued that the supermarket would keep people in town who, like Jakiela, are leaving to shop and perhaps even pull in people from surrounding towns who do not wish to deal with the traffic in Rutland or Middlebury.
Even if the proposed site is outside the town, they said, it seemed close enough that downtown businesses should benefit.
While she would not discuss specifics, Miller said, Hannaford's market research indicates Brandon can easily support the store they want to build and they had been looking at the area for a while. She said they had rejected the northern part of town as too problematic and saw no other viable sites.
Also when asked if the company might reconsider based on public reaction to the proposal, she said Hannaford had made a legal commitment to the site south of town.
gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com
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