Super 1 construction continues on schedule

SANDPOINT — A mild winter combined with solid preliminary work have aided the effort for Sandpoint’s Super 1 Foods to meet its early summer completion date.

The store’s walls have gone up and contractors are working on the roof of the 54,000-square-foot structure three months after the first shovel-load of dirt was moved at the site.

“The first time a truck showed up and we broke ground, was in November,” Randy McIntire, store director, said.

Contractors started underground plumbing and electrical work this week and street work at Larch Street and Boyer Avenue will begin in April, coinciding with parking lot construction, McIntire said.

“We can’t start landscaping until after the curbs and gutters are in, probably in May or June,” he said.

Although the mild weather aided some parts of construction, a perpetual spring comes with its own set of problems, Neil Muehlhausen, project supervisor for Vandervert Construction, the main contractor on the job, said.

“Freezing conditions have their own set of values and hindrances,” Muehlhausen said. “Like warm and wet conditions.”

Meeting compaction requirements takes more time when the ground is wet, and working in unstable sand means foundations must be excavated deeper.

Crews had to excavate five feet to the more stable clay substrata, he said. 

Once the roof and underground work is done inside the $5 million structure, concrete will be poured and work will start inside.

“Right now, we’re at the point where we’re getting the building dried in and the roof completed,” he said. “We’ll pour interior concrete in the next couple of weeks and start interior finishes.”

The job so far has provided about a dozen local jobs, but more are slated in upcoming phases, Muehlhausen said.

On any given day, he said, 20 to 30 workers are on site, including about a dozen local employees.

Most of the contractors are from Spokane, Vandervert’s home base, with one from Boise. Earthworks Northwest, a Sandpoint company was hired for the excavation and mud is supplied by Sandpoint’s Interstate Concrete and Asphalt.

Stone Creek Land Design and Development, a Priest River company, will landscape the grounds and Sandpoint Furniture Carpet One of Ponderay was hired for floor covering.

Muehlhausen expects the project to be completed by June.

That is where McIntire will take over with shelving, installing cases and stocking.

The Sandpoint store follows the model of a recently-built store in Kalispell, McIntire said, with a bigger organic foods section and an expanded seafood selection.

Physically, the new store is pleasing to look at, he said, with an earth tone exterior, and more windows.

“There will be a lot more natural light in it,” he said.

Super 1 will begin accepting applications for a 100-employee work force in April, he said.

He has already fielded inquiries by interested candidates, he said.

“Sandpoint is a popular town,” for newcomers as well as former residents, he said. “People either want to move there, or they want to move back.”