With construction underway, the Co-op looks ahead to serving growing customer base – Argus Leader

General Manager Patrick Sayler stands in front of The Co-Op Natural Foods in Sioux Falls. The Co-op is planning a large expansion.(Photo: Jeremy Fugleberg / Sioux Falls Business Journal)

The Sioux Falls Food Co-op is about to get bigger as the grocer embarks on its multi-phased expansion plans.

Construction has already begun in the tenant space next to the Co-op's current location in the retail center at410 W. 18th St., just off of Minnesota Avenue.

Leadership for the grocery store wrapped up their capital campaign just last month after months of planning and years of anticipating a need for more room, general manager Patrick Sayler said.

"In the co-opworld it's not as simple as in regular retail world," Sayler said. "There are so many more stakeholders involved."

The Co-op was issued building permits this week for the project, a four-phase timeline expected to culminate in the spring. Early work won't be as disruptive to the store's operations because the walls are up between the two spaces, which will eventually become one single, larger space.

A 3-D rendering of what Co-op Natural Foods in Sioux Falls will look like after the store's planned expansion in 2020.(Photo: Submitted)

Crews have already finished demolition on the other side and will be able to finish most of the work before the walls come down, including building out a deli area nearly four times the size of the current section.

"It's quite an undertaking," Sayler said.

By the time the spaces are combined and the remodeling work is finished, each section of the Co-op will have more space. The largest expansions -- after the deli -- will occur in the meat department and frozen department.

The growth will also help the Co-op better meet the food needs of the growing number of aspiring home-based chefs, who are using quarantine during the coronavirus pandemicto branch out in their cooking, Sayler said.

"It seems like folks are really getting out of their comfort zone and trying out new and different things," he said.

Expanding the Co-op has been something the store's organizers have been planning since Sayler started in 2016.

"Pretty quickly after moving tothe space we're currently in, we realized we we're going to outgrow the space," he said.

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With construction underway, the Co-op looks ahead to serving growing customer base - Argus Leader