After news was leaked to the media in August that Fred Meyer was scrapping its decade-long plan for a sunken, mixed-use Fred Meyer, store officials met with the Greenwood Phinney Chamber of Commerce Sept. 10 to further explain that decision and expand on the new remodel plan.

Tom Gibbons, Fred Meyer director of real estate, reiterated that Fred Meyer moving away from the planned redevelopment is strictly an economic decision. The economy is in bad shape, and the development would have cost as much as two standard Fred Meyer stores, he said.

The scrapped plan was for a $91 million multi-use development, including a 170,000-square-foot, underground Fred Meyer topped with additional retail and residential space, as well as a three-story parking garage.

In addition to the high cost, the project was over budget by as much as half the cost of a new Fred Meyer, said Melinda Merrill, director of public affairs for Fred Meyer.

In lieu of that development, Fred Meyer will now be remodeling the existing store and expanding into the Greenwood Market building. The upper level of the store will house grocery items, the lower level will be apparel and the Greenwood Market building will host the garden and home center.

The remodel will include improving the facades on both buildings, and Fred Meyer will be adding landscaping and pedestrian walkways, including an outdoor walkway between the two buildings, to the surface parking lot . The parking lot below the Fred Meyer will remain.

Fred Meyer recently completed a remodel of a similar store in Portland. That store was awarded LEED certification for sustainability. Merrill said Fred Meyer would not go for LEED certification on the Greenwood project because the certification process costs $250,000 to $1 million, but the company will still include sustainable design elements.

Gibbons said the remodel will ideally begin in January or February and be ready to open by November 2011, when the Greenwood Market will close. The Fred Meyer would be closed during construction.

The Sept. 10 Greenwood Phinney Chamber of Commerce meeting was Fred Meyer's only planned announcement of the change in direction for the Greenwood store. But, Gibbons said he would be open to another public meeting if the community wants one.

Fred Meyer is avoiding any work during the remodel that would require a State Environmental Protection Act review or a Master Use Permit, both of which require public comment periods and meetings.

Fred Meyer will be able to move forward with the remodel as soon as it receives building permits from the city.

The previous redevelopment plans made it through the city's design review process, and Gibbons said Fred Meyer will revisit them in another eight to 10 years.

"Fred Meyer is very seriously keeping this alive," he said. "It's very feasible to do what we wanted to do. It's just too expensive."

"We're not abandoning the project," Merrill said.

But, a proposed rezone of the site on which Fred Meyer sits could make the former redevelopment plan impossible. The rezone would turn what was a Commercial Zone into a Neighborhood Commercial 2 Zone with a 25,000-square-foot building footprint limit.