Fred Meyer eyes Palmer

PALMER -- If real estate plans currently in the works go through, Fred Meyer could build a new grocery store in Palmer.

The company is investigating an eight-acre site made up of two adjacent parcels on South Cobb Street. The land is also adjacent to the Glenn Highway right-of-way and access to the highway could be a factor in whether or not the grocery store chain purchases the real estate.

"We've got a number of things to investigate, including traffic patterns and even soil sampling," Fred Meyer spokesman Rob Boley said. The company hasn't begun talks with Alaska Department of Transportation authorities, Boley said.

Boley said the store would likely be one of Fred Meyer's "marketplace" stores. Marketplace stores are typically around 95,000 square feet. For comparison, the Wasilla Fred Meyer is 169,000 square feet.

The smaller stores carry a full line of grocery products and are designed to fit neighborhoods already served by the larger Fred Meyer department stores. There will be non-grocery product lines, but Boley said marketplace stores are designed to fit individual communities. He couldn't say which departments the company would choose if the store is built.

"It's really way too early to determine what departments we would put in there in addition to the food. But it's not a case where we want to put in smaller versions of every department you find in a larger Fred Meyer store … we try to come up with a mix that fits the community," Boley said.

Palmer customers can already shop a Fred Meyer located about 10 miles from the location the company is looking at. Another big-box style Fred Meyer will open in Eagle River next spring. Boley said that makes Palmer ready for a grocery store, but not ready for the larger style of store.

"People come in for groceries every week, but they don't shop those other departments as often," Boley said.

The largest of the two lots is five acres, currently owned by First Baptist Church of Palmer. Pastor Bruce Rowell said the congregation recently voted to allow church leaders to negotiate with Fred Meyer to sell its land.

"We are kind of in a holding pattern to wait and see what happens," Rowell said.

This would be the second relocation for First Baptist in recent years, the church moved about two blocks from its original building on South Bailey Street in 1996, according to Rowell. First Baptist Church of Palmer is a member of the Alaska Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention. The congregation was originally established in 1952 as an outreach mission from an Anchorage Baptist church, Rowell said.

As the Matanuska Valley population grew, First Baptist Church of Palmer assisted in establishing congregations in the Sutton and Bodenburg Butte communities. According to Rowell, the last time First Baptist moved, volunteers from the Lower 48 helped them build.

"Mission teams from Georgia and teams from Mississippi and Texas came up to help with the building. I know that Georgia was the primary group and there's no way we would have the facility without those participants," Rowell said.

Rowell didn't have specifics about the real estate negotiations. He said the talks would take place through real estate agents and that the congregation would also be creating a site-selection committee.

"Ultimately our church does operate by democratic processes. There are some committees that have been formed and assigned with various tasks such as site selection," Rowell said.

The second lot is 3.2 acres, adjacent to the church property. According to Mat-Su borough property tax records the second lot is owned by a private individual with a Kodiak address.