Waukee Hy-Vee Store Construction Part of 2013 Company Building Boom

The Waukee Hy-Vee store under construction is one of two new stores the company is building this year in the metro as part of its plans to spend a record $270 million in 2013 to build new stores and update existing supermarkets, the Des Moines Register reports.

The West Des Moines-based grocery chain has started construction on a 92,000-square-foot grocery store in the Prairie Trail development in Ankeny and is working on a similarly sized store at Alice’s and Hickman roads in Waukee. They will be among the largest in the chain, the newspaper said.

The company’s capital improvement plan includes developing stores in new markets and renovating stores in existing locations, including three in the Des Moines metro area, said Ruth Comer, assistant vice president of media relations.

Waukee’s store is under construction and should open in the fall. New stores cost the company about $15 million to build, Comer told the Register.

The Waukee store will be similar in size and offerings to . That store has a sit-down restaurant, sushi bar, dog treat bar and wine bar, among other amenities.

“As we go forward, we may change some things in the new stores," Comer told the Register. "No two stores are exactly alike.”

Hy-Vee will also remodel its West Des Moines store on Jordan Creek Parkway just east of Waukee. The property will not expand, but the interior will get an upgrade, Comer said.

Waukee already is home to a Hy-Vee Gas station and convenience store at 1025 E. Hickman Road, which houses a Caribou Coffee. The store opened in mid-October. 

Inside the store, bright inviting colors, well-organized shelves, a soda fountain, banks of coolers and fresh food items appealed to customers looking to grab a quick bite to eat or a morning jolt of caffeine.

Outside, there are 16 pay-at-the-pump gas bays that are open 24 hours a day, even when the store is not.

Hy-Vee now has 233 stores in eight Midwestern states, the Register says. Hy-Vee posted sales of $7.7 billion in 2012, ranking it among the top 25 supermarket chains and the top 50 private companies in the United States, the company said.

Our Earlier Story:

A much-anticipated grocery store is finally on the horizon in Waukee. 

According to store officials, the Hy-Vee grocery store near the corner of East Hickman Road and Northeast Alice’s Road could be up and running by summer 2013.

“We know it’s going to open in the summer,” Ruth Comer, assistant vice president of media relations for the grocery store, told the Des Moines Register this week.

It seems like forever ago when news of a possible Hy-Vee store started circulating in Waukee. A site plan that included a grocery store, convenience store and car wash was initially filed with the city of Waukee in February 2011. A year later, the council voted to extend Hy-Vee's site plan for another year when a building permit had not yet been filed.

It wasn't until April 2012 that a building permit for the Hy-Vee convenience store was filed and and construction began not long after. It just opened for business in October.

If nothing else, fans of the Hy-Vee grocery store can take heart in the fact that, once it's built, the store itself will be something to talk about. Offcials say it will be very similar to the newest metro Hy-Vee store at 8701 Douglas Ave. in Urbandale.

That store, the company's largest, features "authentic Italian gelato, a sushi bar, a wood-fired stone pizza oven, a breakfast bar, and a housewares department with demonstration area." Projected cost to build is approximately $18 to $19 million.

The site plan for the Waukee location calls for an approximately 87,000 square-foot store with a pharmacy, cafeteria and coffee shop, among other things and will employ between 450-500 people once it's open.

While Hy-Vee officials wouldn't put an exact date on the store's opening, Comer said it will be sometime after June 21, 2013.