'The entire town is excited' about Arlington's new Haggen supermarket

ARLINGTON — Another sign of the city's growth will soon spring up south of downtown.

A new Haggen Food & Pharmacy will be built at the southwest corner of Highway 9 and 204th Street Northeast on a lot that's been vacant for years.

"They're just doing site-prep work now," said Stacia Kirby, a representative for the Bellingham-based Haggen chain, which has 29 stores in Washington and Oregon. "They'll begin construction about in mid-July and open somewhere early in 2004."

The addition of the store is a significant step for the city of about 14,000 residents, said Nancy Holiman, a member of the board of directors of the Greater Arlington Area Chamber of Commerce.

"We have all been waiting," said Holiman, the manager and senior vice president of Frontier Bank in Arlington. "The entire town is excited about it because we only have two other grocery stores in town."

The others are the Food Pavilion in the city's north end and a Safeway store near the new Haggen location.

The new store is expected to have about 60,000 square feet, Kirby said. It hasn't been decided what services will be offered at the site, but Haggen stores commonly include a pharmacy, a coffee shop, a flower shop, video rentals and a bank.

"Each store, we kind of change a little bit," Kirby said.

Haggen has been aggressively expanding in recent years, with its red-brick stores becoming familiar sights in such locations as Mount Vernon and Marysville. Its newest store opened in February in Tigard, Ore.

"They look at a five-, 10-, 20-year study of where the population is going to go" before opening a store, Kirby said. "People are moving north; they can't afford Seattle."

Holiman said the opening of the store probably represents not increased competition for the same number of spendable dollars but rather a reflection of Arlington's expanding economy.

"It will just draw additional people into the Arlington area," she said.

"It will complement what's already here."

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com