A sturdy new metal fence at the former Mega Foods supermarket on Queen Avenue was still unfinished on Tuesday.
It seems as though every few days someone asks me what’s happening at the former Mega Foods supermarket in Albany.
But the only thing that has happened since I checked last month is that now a fence is being built around part of the parking lot. It’s a simple but handsome metal fence — steel, I assume — and looks intended to be permanent.
The new owner of the property, Mega Investments LLC, is putting up the fence after intruders broke into the vacant former store building, I was told at the City of Albany Planning Division.
The fence will enclose the parking area for what likely will become storage units inside the former store.
Mega Investments has filed a land-use application for dividing the property and rezoning the southern portion for apartments. That’s a grassy area next to the Periwinkle Creek Apartments.
The investment LLC is headed or managed by Sona Athwal, who lives on Seven Mile Lane southeast of Albany. Two other members are from Salem, according to the business registry of the Oregon secretary of state.
The supermarket, at 2000 Queen Ave S.E., closed five years ago. Online records of Linn County still show the former owner, with an address at the Mega Foods store in Salem. The land-use application was filed for the new owner, I learned at City Hall.
The application is not complete, so the planning division has not yet put it out in the form of a public notice.
When that happens, the public may learn a little more about what’s in store for this chunk of real estate pretty much in the center of town. (hh)
Looking toward Queen Avenue along the new fence.
I don’t know but I will BITE!
Security fence for the pending “housing” construction?
Akin to the doors being locked to prevent people from leaving a speech by the former guy before he is done …. bloviating?
LOL
I was hoping a Trader Joe’s would come in at that spot, it would be a perfect place for it!
Seriously you got to be kidding those are the two things we absolutely DO NOT NEED ANY MORE OF storage units or apartments at least put something there that we could actually use like maybe a recreation center with like mini golf air hockey bumper cars something fun for the kids to do around here
My backyard! (Well, kind of…)
I’ll admit I was really hoping for a year round independent/farmer’s style market with local sellers… produce, meats, cheeses, honey, and etc. Sigh.
Frankly it’ll just be refreshing to see the property back in use. Just having the parking lot lights on is very helpful to me, a pedestrian, as walking through the area in recent years at night has been …. let’s just say unpleasant. Thanks for the update!