Supermarket owners Gaylene and Paul Thompson are counting down the days until their new FreshChoice premises opens in Graham St in Tinwald.
The 720sqm site was started in December and expected to open late July.
It was twice the size of their existing SuperValue supermarket in the Tinwald shopping centre with about 35 car parks for customers.
Gaylene said it was a timely move as brand expansion saw SuperValue stores nationwide converted to FreshChoice.
‘‘SuperValues are changing over time and the perfect opportunity was for us to do this move at the same time,’’ Gaylene said.
‘‘We knew the site was going to be available and it suited head office as an option.’’
The Thompsons, who have been with SuperValue for 21 years, were excited by the change, full of improvements.
‘‘It’s great for Tinwald,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s got accessibility, parking and a bigger range – about a 30 per cent bigger range on the current shop. Just over half of the site is car parking.’’
The building, on land owned by Carrfields, was being constructed by Calder Stewart.
A driveway access would be open between the supermarket and the neighbouring NPD fuel depot, also on land owned by Carrfields. ‘‘It’s actually gone fairly to plan,’’ Gaylene said.
Carrfields general manager of property Graeme Wilkins said months of discussion had resulted in a building design to suit everybody.
‘‘The obvious choice was to have a new supermarket, so very early on we contacted Paul and Gaylene about the opportunity to see if they wanted to relocate here,’’ he said.
‘‘Through those discussions (they) were in the position of moving with their tenancy coming up and it was a great opportunity,’’ he said.
He said acoustics, engineering and traffic consultants had carried out necessary work in the planning stages and Ashburton District Council had been good to work with.
‘‘We did everything to the T and got the sign-off from the council,’’ Wilkins said.
‘‘We are thrilled as landlords to have Paul and Gaylene on board, and Calder Stewart as our lead construction company.’’
He said it had been a good working partnership.
Calder Stewart Construction quantity surveyor Brooke Williams said the design/build was on target to be completed by July 17.
