Honest Weight Solicits Help to Make Dream Store a Reality

Honest Weight Food Co-Op, a member-owned grocery and natural foods store on Central Avenue, is reaching out to the community, and asking for help to build a new store on Watervliet Avenue. The co-op is soliciting $2 million in private loans from shareholders to help make the new dream store a reality.

The co-op would like to raise as much as possible through shareholder loans, so that they can rely less on loans from financial institutions with all their attendant costs. According to the store's facilities committee, other cooperatives have had great success borrowing money from their shareholders.

According to the pamphlet sent to shareholders, loans must be in a minimum of $1,000, and interest on a loan for up to $10,000 will be 1-4% and 1-6% on loans for $10,000 or more.

Currently cramped for space at its location at 484 Central Avenue, the co-op bought a under-utilized, concrete block building at 100 Watervliet Avenue last fall (pictured above), with plans to renovate it. This fall, they announced plans to tear down the old building to build a new more environmentally sustainable Green building on the site, pushing their move-in date to 2010. The co-op hired 3t architects, and have reviewed designs for the new building. Construction is slated to begin in 2009.

As an interim solution to current space constraints, the store has transformed warehouse space into retail space. They spent the fall reorganizing floor plan to allow for more room and smoother flow of traffic. The produce section has expanded into health and beauty, and health and beauty has moved into the new warehouse space. Likewise, the bulk section and dairy have moved into the new space, to allow more space for canned and packaged goods. The new layout is much more appealing overall, and shoppers have more room to perambulate, without worrying about crashing carts with other shoppers. Their newly expanded orgainic cheese/deli department is the best for miles around.

The new store will be over 18,000 square feet, including a deli and bakery, a juice and coffee bar, and a teaching kitchen, and expanded parking facilities. This new construction project is also looking to meet high LEED standards.