Due to issues with supplies and construction costs, plans for a new grocery store and a new liquor store in Powell have both been delayed, city council members learned last week.

A year ago, Albertsons announced its intent to turn Powell’s former Shopko building into a grocery store, complete with a Starbucks coffee shop and pharmacy. The company said in January that it would open the store in 2022.

However, in a letter to City Clerk Tiffany Brando, Albertsons said it was experiencing delays in construction due to increasing costs and material shortages.

Meanwhile, plans to expand the Pit Stop #12 gas station and add a liquor store have also run into delays due to supply chain issues.

With both Albertsons and the Pit Stop having yet to use the retail liquor licenses they were awarded in January and March, respectively, the Powell City Council voted last week to extend the licenses for one year.

In January, both the Pit Stop and Albertsons competed for what was at the time the city’s only available retail license. 

At that council meeting, Albertsons real estate manager Eric Holzer said the new grocery store would create 80 to 100 positions, about 60% of which would be full-time. Holzer said the company planned to open the new location in a year.

Mike Bailey, who owns the Pit Stop locations through Riverton-based Bailey Enterprises, Inc., wants to expand his store on West Coulter Avenue. Bailey plans to convert the store’s car-wash bays, which currently aren’t in use, into a liquor department. It will include a drive-up window and some type of food service, while employing five to 10 more people, Bailey said in January. He had predicted that construction would begin over the summer and be completed by now.

January’s license debate drew public comment, as representatives from Powell grocer Mr. D’s argued the license should go to an established business like the Pit Stop rather than an out-of-state corporation with no local ties.

Citing the much greater number of jobs Albertsons was promising, the council voted to give the license to the national chain, with Mayor John Wetzel and Councilor Steve Lensegrav voting against the motion. However, Bailey Enterprises wound up being able to purchase a license from the Red Stag, which had ceased operations; that transfer was approved by the council in March.

At last week’s meeting, Bailey said his company ran into issues ordering coolers for its expansion. The coolers originally had lead times of two to three months, but that had been extended to nine months, Bailey said. 

“The supply chain has been totally messed up,” he said, saying he now expects construction to begin in the spring.

Albertsons had no representatives on hand to answer questions at the Oct. 18 meeting, but City Administrator Zack Thorington said the company had been in communication with the city about building permits.

Before voting to extend the unused licenses for another year, Councilor Geoff Hovivian asked if the city had received any inquiries about available retail licenses and Clerk Brando said they had not. The council’s vote to approve the extensions was unanimous. 

The retail license that the two companies competed for in January had previously been awarded to the proposed Powell Clocktower Inn. Councilors gave the license to the Clocktower Inn by a 4-2 vote in late 2018, choosing it over a competing proposal from Club Dauntless owner Stacy Bair, who had sought to open a “Dauntless Club” sports bar.

The proposed hotel, which was supposed to be built in 2019, still has not broken ground and returned the unused license in fall 2020. Hotelier Steve Wahrlich said that — while he remained committed to the hotel and conference center — he did not want to stymie other businesses by continuing to hold the license.

Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, Albertsons operates some 2,260 retail food and drug stores under multiple brands, including a store in Cody. A January rendering of the planned Powell store showed it as an Albertsons property, though in September, an engineering firm working on the project, CSHQA, said it would be a Safeway. Albertsons didn’t respond to a question seeking clarification on its plans.

(Tribune Editor CJ Baker contributed reporting.)