A Pasadena, Calif.-based chain of Hispanic grocery stores is launching its first Colorado store in Commerce City, where U.S. census figures show that more than half the city’s population is Hispanic.
Officials from Liborio Markets on Monday hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking for the company’s first Colorado store on the site of a former King Soopers at 6040 E. 64th Avenue. It is to open this summer.
The company has partnered with Denver construction and development company MCDS Inc. to redevelop the aging center into a hub of Hispanic-oriented businesses and a plaza for public gatherings and events.
Privately held Liborio Markets has five stores in California and one in Las Vegas. It plans to open three stores in Colorado this year and four more in 2007, said John Alejo, vice president and general counsel for Liborio Markets.
Alejo said Colorado and the surrounding states figure prominently into the company’s national expansion plans. Company officials selected Colorado as a launching pad partly because of their relationship with Anthony Trujillo, president of MCDS.
A joint venture between MCDS and Roche Constructors Inc. will handle the construction.
Liborio Markets is expanding at a time when the size and spending power of the U.S. Latino population is rising significantly. A recent report by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia said the disposable income of Latinos will exceed $1.08 trillion, or 9.2 percent of total purchasing power nationwide, by 2010.
More than one in five residents of metro Denver were Latino in 2004.
Such demographics have made the region attractive to companies targeting Latinos.
In 2003, Minneapolis-based Nash Finch Co. launched its 40,000-square-foot Avanza grocery stores in the metro area. In 2004, the company shuttered Avanza stores in Pueblo and Chicago and said it was looking for a buyer for its three Denver metro stores. All three continue to operate.
A Nash Finch spokesman did not return messages Monday.
Trujillo of MCDS estimated that the first phase of the Commerce City project – including the 43,000-square-foot store and outdoor spaces including a plaza, fountains and a gazebo – will cost more than $10 million. A second phase of the project will include the redevelopment of an existing strip center on the site into 52,000 square feet of retail space.
Commerce City officials welcomed the new store, which they said will help contribute to the revitalization of the southern portion of the city.
Liborio Markets was founded in 1966 by Enrique Alejo, who serves as its president. It has annual revenues of more than $82 million.
The Commerce City store – to be called Rancho Liborio – will serve as a prototype for the company’s intended national expansion. It will stock an assortment of grocery items from a variety of countries and freshly prepared foods from its panaderia, or bakery. The store will include a separate carnicería, or butcher shop, and a tortilleria producing freshly made tortillas.
Liborio Markets plans to build a second location in Aurora and is negotiating for another former King Soopers store at East Colfax Avenue and Havana Street.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@ denverpost.com.
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