Nesters Market opening at Mount Pleasant’s new tallest building in 2019

The Independent At Main with the downtown Vancouver skyline as a backdrop. (Acton Ostry Architects)

Nesters Market is preparing to open one of its largest grocery stores yet — a 30,000-sq-ft store at The Independent At Main, a new 21-storey mixed-use building at the southwest corner of the intersection of Broadway and Kingsway in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant district.

Sam Corea, the Vice-President of Retail for the Jim Pattison Group division that operates the Nesters Market, Meinhardt, and Buy-Low Foods brands, told Daily Hive the chain is currently anticipating an opening sometime in early-2019.

Nesters Market The Independent Vancouver

Nesters Market at The Independent At Main in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant district. (Kenneth Chan / Daily Hive)

“We are waiting for the developer to obtain their occupancy permit so we can mobilize our merchandising, marketing, and operation teams,” he said.

The new store occupies the second level of the newly-constructed building, with the store accessed by a ground-level entrance located at the intersection.

Eight other smaller retail units are located on the ground level, including tenants such as Starbucks and Freshii. There is also about 16,100-sq-ft of office space on the second level.

Nesters Market at The Independent At Main in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant district. (Kenneth Chan / Daily Hive)

Above the two floors of retail and office space are 258 homes, including a number of units that face a 20,000-sq-ft private, south-facing courtyard and park space perched on top of the complex’s podium.

The tower, the tallest building in Mount Pleasant, is topped off by a “tree-topped crown” that “symbolizes” the height of Vancouver’s first-growth forest. It also features a rare urban form for Vancouver — a large video screen measuring 13 ft by 22 ft on the building’s Kingsway facade. But instead of airing commercials, the screen will be utilized as a digital canvas for public art by the Grunt Gallery.

There are 399 vehicle parking stalls over four underground levels, with 120 stalls set aside for the building’s retail, restaurant, and office spaces.

Ground level commercial space layout at The Independent At Main. (Colliers Canada)

Second level commercial space layout at The Independent At Main. (Colliers Canada)

The Independent was developed by Rize Alliance Properties and designed by Acton Ostry Architects.

It is immediately adjacent to the future subway entrance of the Millennium Line Broadway Extension’s Main Street Station at the vacant parking lot site on the southeast corner of the intersection of Main Street and Broadway.

The Independent At Main Mount Pleasant Vancouver skyline

The Independent At Main, with a perspective from Main Street. The future subway station entrance will replace the ground-level parking lot. (Acton Ostry Architects)

To the east of the property is Kingsgate Mall, which is anchored by the Jim Pattison Group’s Buy-Low Foods, but Corea says there are no plans to shutter the doors to the low-cost grocery store after it opens Nesters Market.

The outmoded shopping centre has immense redevelopment potential given its close proximity to the subway station. Earlier this year, the Vancouver School Board, which owns the property, said it is considering selling the air rights of the site and in the process of renegotiating Beedie Development’s 99-year lease.

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