Posted 2:00 am Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Brookshire's Breaks Ground On Its Answer To Whole Foods
By BRIAN PEARSON
Staff Writer
The giant, gleaming cutlery the dignitaries used - instead of the usual gold shovels - to symbolically turn earth Tuesday perhaps underscored how Brookshire's Grocery Co.'s new store will be different from anything else.
Staff Writer
The giant, gleaming cutlery the dignitaries used - instead of the usual gold shovels - to symbolically turn earth Tuesday perhaps underscored how Brookshire's Grocery Co.'s new store will be different from anything else.
Company officials, elected officials, bank officers and various business community representatives gathered at 6991 Old Jacksonville Highway to break ground and celebrate the start of construction for Brookshire's creation.
Similar to a Whole Foods, Central Market and other specialty stores, the FRESH by Brookshire's will carry hard-to-find food items in addition to traditional grocery-store products.
Brad Brookshire, the company's board chairman, said the store's concept will be an amalgamation of Whole Foods-type stores that his company visited and researched nationwide.
"This is a day we've looked forward to for years," Brookshire told a mid-morning crowd of about 75 gathered Tuesday in a tent at the construction site. "It's kind of a day that's going to change our lives."
ready: Specially designed shovels are stacked Tuesday ready for Brookshire’s groundbreaking of its new specialty grocery store Fresh. Above, an artist’s sketch shows the new grocery store.
He added that the store, which developers have said will create a commercial boom around it, has been in the works for about three years.
Company officials have said the store, located on the west side of Old Jacksonville just south of Grande Avenue, will employ a "culinary team" of more than 75 "food experts" and eventually create more than 200 new jobs.
FRESH will feature a burrito bar, sandwich, soup and salad bars, with items prepared daily on site. It also will have gelato machines churning out the Italian variant of ice cream.
In addition, there will be a coffee bar, organic foods, bulk foods, a pharmacy and expanded health and wellness items.
Brookshire said 60 percent of the products sold in the 55,000-square-foot store will be traditional grocery items.
"This is a concept we're very, very excited about," Brookshire said. "I look forward to the day we have a ribbon cutting instead of a groundbreaking."
The announcement marked a second, bigger move for Brookshire's this year.
Last month, the company announced the purchase of a Rice Road property that housed a Luby's cafeteria for more than 25 years before it closed last October.
The building, which has more than 11,000 square feet of space, neighbors a Brookshire's Food and Pharmacy, 100 Rice Road.
A median between the two parking lots already has been removed, with more parking spaces added.
The former Luby's will be used for corporate training. Kitchen equipment also could be used for food-service training and developing new food products.
Mayor Barbara Bass, who also spoke at Tuesday's groundbreaking, lauded the economic impact aspect of the FRESH project.
"Anytime you are creating jobs in Tyler, Texas ... the mayor is happy," Mayor Bass quipped. "All of us who love to shop at Brookshire's have been looking forward to this day."
After the groundbreaking, Tom Mullins, president and CEO of the Tyler Economic Development Council, said the Brookshire's will open a floodgate of long-awaited commercial development along Old Jacksonville.
While Tyler is established as regional retail, banking, medical, educational and retirement hubs, the new Brookshire's will help make it a grocery hub as well, Mullins said.
"This is such a unique concept," he said. "I think it will attract people from a lot of miles around.
"People will want to come here and experience this new concept."
Already, several restaurants and retailers have indicated they will build on property around the Brookshire's site.
Brookshire Grocery Co., established in 1928, operates 156 stores in four states - Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi, with three distribution centers and seven manufacturing sites.
Rick Rayford, Brookshire's president and CEO, said after Tuesday's groundbreaking that the new store marks one of the biggest innovations in company history.
"It's in our top five," Rayford said. "I think because it's a new concept, that's exciting for the people of Tyler, and we're excited to bring it to Tyler. It's a very important project for our company."
Brookshire said after the groundbreaking that in addition to conducting nationwide research, his company also consulted consumers.
"Based on customers talking to us, there's a need out there for this unique shopping experience," Brookshire said. "You won't have to go to Dallas anymore to shop at a Whole Foods or a Central Market store. "Our folks have studied this concept for years and come back with the best of the best of all these stores."
