After decades of strife and stalling, Provo’s west side finally seems poised for a grocery store.
The city has lured a Walmart Supercenter to a 20-acre parcel on the growing west side, where it will join the city’s bustling municipal airport and 100-acre Epic Sports Park.
For years zoning issues, a lawsuit, community pushback and even the potential for a grocery store itself have hampered efforts to actually build a much-needed grocery store. The new Walmart will sit near 500 West, between Lakeview Parkway and Lakewood Drive.
The city’s planning commission will vote to approve the project plan Wednesday, and it could open by 2027, said Bill Peperone, director of Development Services for Provo.
Since Mayor Michelle Kaufusi was sworn in six years ago to replace then-outgoing Mayor John Curtis (now Utah’s freshman U.S. Senator), she has wanted to bring in a west-side grocery store. She campaigned on that promise when voters elected her in 2017 and again in 2021.
Like Salt Lake City, Interstate 15 bisects Provo. City hall, Brigham Young University, the courthouse and Provo’s public library all sit on the east side, along with some dozen or so grocery stores.
But in District 3, to the city’s west, where some 16,320 households reside — roughly a seventh of the households in the city, according to provided data — there are none. Those residents must cross the interstate for their grocery haul.
For more than 20 years, Provo officials have tried to bring in a grocery store to the other side of I-15. All the while, Smith’s has owned land in the area’s “best” location at Center Street and Geneva Road, right off the interstate, Peperone said.
At one point, prior to the new millennium, Smith’s seemed ready to build on the site, but a lawsuit from concerned residents and other pushback slowed the process, said Rick Cox, whose family owns the adjacent parcels that would need to be included to build a full-sized grocery store. By the time the case resolved, he said, Kroger had acquired Smith’s as a subsidiary and was less interested in building.
As the city worked with Smith’s to develop the site, officials said the grocer kept delaying the decision. In the meantime, others were wary to build — worried if they did, Smith’s may then build a store to compete with theirs.
“I feel as if we’ve potentially, and basically, been held hostage,” Kaufusi said in a February 2021 work session.
“You name a grocery store, and I have met with them, and every single one of them shows interest and is excited that I’ve approached them. But,” she continued, “the go-to every time is, ‘As long as Smith’s owns that property, we’re not going to go and start building out there.‘”
She added that the city would love if Smith’s would build a store. At one point, Peperone said, the city offered $1 million to offset construction costs.
“The problem has been this six month push-off they’ve been doing for years and years and years... “ Kaufusi said in the 2021 meeting. ”It’s not moving the needle, and we need to move the needle on this one.”
Kroger did not respond to The Salt Lake Tribune’s request for comment last week.
Peperone said “after some very, very intense time and effort” trying to forge a deal with Smith’s, ““it just became clear that that wasn’t going to happen.”
The city switched tactics, changing the zoning at the Smith’s parcel to disallow the large grocery store they’d been promising, and rezoning the site between Lakeview Parkway and Lakewood Drive to attract another grocer there.
Peperone said the $1 million offered to Smith’s will now be given to Walmart.
He added that the anticipated 170,000 square foot Supercenter (with more than 700 parking stalls) will help “spur growth on the west side,” and will “be a boon to the not just the west side, but the city generally.”
Cox said his family still plans to develop their land at Center Street and Geneva Road, but he declined to say what may be built at the site. Peperone added Smith’s is planning to sell its parcels.
