PCC Community Markets plans to open a flagship store in downtown Seattle’s Rainier Square development. The co-op will take 20,000 square feet on the ground floor of the 58-story Rainier Square tower. The store is set to open in mid-2020, when the building is finished.
The site sits between Union and University streets and between Fourth and Fifth avenues. From there, the store will serve the Belltown, West Edge, Pioneer Square and First Hill neighborhoods. PCC expects to create about 100 new union jobs.
It would be the first major grocer to enter downtown Seattle in more than a decade. Whole Foods Market opened on Westlake Avenue in 2006, while Kress IGA Supermarket opened on Third Avenue in 2008.
PCC will stock fresh, local, organic and seasonal food. More than 95% of its produce is organic, and its meat is 100% organic, non-GMO and grass-fed. Seafood meets the Seafood Watch standards of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The co-op also buys from local farmers, ranchers and fishers for the salads, soups and entrees it makes each day.
Chief executive Cate Hardy called downtown a vibrant, growing neighborhood with varied tastes. She said the central location is highly significant for the co-op, which has served Seattle for 65 years. Greg Johnson, president of developer Wright Runstad & Co., said the project needed a top-quality grocery store for residents, workers and visitors alike, and he called PCC a perfect match.
Wright Runstad is building Rainier Square with institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management. The project includes 722,000 square feet of office space, 188 apartments, nearly 80,000 square feet of retail and a seven-level underground garage. Amazon and Equinox fitness clubs have also signed on, and construction of a luxury hotel is expected to start in late 2018.
PCC is a community-owned co-op with 10 stores in the Puget Sound area. Before the downtown store, it plans to open in Burien in spring 2018, then in Ballard in 2019 and in Madison Valley in 2020.
