The former Mega Foods site on Queen Avenue on Wednesday afternoon. The big “Mega Foods” sign is gone.
Every few days, somebody on Facebook or Nextdoor asks what’s happening at the Albany site of the Mega Foods supermarket that closed in 2017. These people have not been following this blog, or they forgot what they read.
The property, at 2000 Queen Ave. S.E., has been a regular feature here. The Periwinkle Bikepath goes past the parking lot, so I see the building from time to time as I ride by.
The huge store sat empty after it closed, except for a few months in 2018 when Walmart rented it to store equipment while that company remodeled stores elsewhere.
The zoning was a problem for a while, preventing new uses of the 42,000-square-foot building by just one business. The city took care of that by changing the zoning, but it didn’t seem to help.
Then, the 4.8-acre property sold in 2021 for $2.5 million.
The new owners, Mega Investments LLC and its principal owner, Albany resident Lal Sidhu, got city approval of a site plan to turn the building into a self-storage depot.
They filed for a building permit to subdivide the building’s shell with standard storage unit pertitions in 2023. The work on the conversion has been going on since and picked up in recent weeks.
The owners also got site plan approval on building two apartment houses south of the old supermarket, but that project has not started.
You may be wondering if Albany needs yet another self-storage business. The answer is that people with money to invest would not build those things if the market for them did not exist. (hh)
Hi Hasso,
The apartment construction has been underway for a while now. Lots of equipment working. Might want to check it out.
We appreciate all your information.
Not the same project. I think you are referring to the apartments between the creek and Geary, not the ones planned between the old store and apartments to the south.
Yes, self-storage is a business for hoarders. It’s easier to donate or get rid of things no longer needed than paying a monthly fee for keeping it around and most likely never using it. But that’s how we humans operate.
I liked the old Mega Foods. It was convenient and the layout made sense to me, unlike Fred-Meyer who can’t even keep their meat in the same area and have the aisle header signs so small, old eyes have to get within an aisle to read them.
It’s kind of ironic that with all the housing being built nearby, a “good” grocery store could be successful in that location. They could put a “cart corral” in front of each complex.
How about a story about why Albany doesn’t have a Jimmy John’s or Jersey Mike’s.