Red Barn Market will open its eighth and largest location in the summer of 2024 with a new store in North Saanich.
The independent grocer and deli operator will be part of the Sandown Park Shopping Centre development, which already has a 49,000-square-foot Canadian Tire, on the former horse racing property across the Pat Bay Highway from the town of Sidney.
The new 10,000-square-foot Red Barn Market will be part of a 50,000-square-foot second phase by Vancouver-based developer Platform that will also have a Dollarama store and a Springs Group liquor outlet.
Construction is expected to start this summer and be complete the following year. The shopping centre will have about 300 parking spaces.
Russ Benwell, one of four partners in Red Barn Markets, said the company is looking forward to setting up a store in the heart of the region’s agricultural community, where it sources produce from Saanich Peninsula farms and grocery items that range from jams and honey to meat from cottage producers across the Island.
“That’s always been part of our philosophy and we continue to nurture that,” said Benwell. “As we expand we will work with local growers and food producers — that’s what has always separated us from the big box stores.”
The new Red Barn will be built next to the Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture, which operates 83 acres of farmland, forest, wetlands, meadows and community gardens. It’s a demonstration site and works with farmers, researchers and community members to develop best practices in regenerative agriculture.
Sandown Race Track operated from 1955 to 2008. In a deal with the property owners, the District of North Saanich agreed to rezone 12 acres of land into the current shopping centre and transferred the remaining 83 acres to the municipality for agricultural use.
Red Barn began with a store on West Saanich Road in 2002. It followed with a location at Mattick’s Farm and then Vanalman Avenue in Saanich, which includes its 8,000-square-foot smokehouse.
The company added its Latoria Walk store in Langford in 2011 and then opened in Oak Bay in 2015, Esquimalt in 2016 and James Bay in 2017.
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