Safeway To Close Rainier Valley Store

The renaissance of Rainier Valley may stumble a bit with Safeway's announcement that it will soon close one of the area's two major grocery stores.

Company spokeswoman Cherie Myers said Safeway would close the store, at Rainier Avenue South and South Genesee Street, when it finishes remodeling another nearby store it recently purchased.

That remodel, of a former Max Foods store two blocks north, should be completed within a couple of months, Myers said.

Myers said Safeway has not yet determined the exact date the store will be closed. The store was remodeled and its parking lot was expanded only a few years ago. It's also unknown what will move into the closed Safeway store. A new QFC supermarket is being built on Rainier, just north of South McClellan Street.

The former Max store is considerably larger than the older Safeway store - about 61,000 square feet, compared with 42,000 at the original store. With the remodel, Safeway will be adding a Chinese food take-out service, expanding the floral department and enhancing and expanding the deli area.

Safeway's new store is in Rainier Valley Plaza, a strip mall heralded as a sign of the retail rebirth of the neighborhood, along with the opening of Eagle Hardware further north on Rainier. Besides the grocery store, the mall includes Drug Emporium, Hollywood Video, Starbucks and other small businesses.