Brentwood’s transit-oriented buildout just got another major retail anchor, and it’s the kind of name that pulls weekly grocery runs.
Brentwood Block, the Grosvenor-led masterplanned development in Burnaby, has confirmed that Thrifty Foods will open a 38,000 square foot store inside the project.
“Brentwood’s transformation into one of Metro Vancouver’s most dynamic, transit-oriented neighbourhoods is well underway,” the developer wrote, calling the Thrifty Foods deal another step forward in Grosvenor’s vision for the community.
This will be Thrifty Foods’ first Burnaby location.
The chain currently runs 10 stores across British Columbia and is part of the Sobeys family, which puts it inside one of the country’s largest grocery operators.
A 38,000 square foot footprint puts the new Thrifty Foods firmly in full-sized supermarket territory, with room for a deep produce section, full butcher and seafood counters, and the prepared-food offerings the chain is known for back on Vancouver Island.
Thrifty Foods is also the first confirmed retail tenant out of more than 250,000 square feet of retail and office space planned across the Brentwood Block masterplan.
That means more restaurants, cafes, and storefronts are still to be announced for the project in the months and years ahead.
The grocery anchor lands at a time when the area around Brentwood SkyTrain station is being remade station by station.
Whole Foods is already anchored and open at the Solo District towers a few blocks away, and T&T Supermarket is locked in at the Gilmore Place project just down the SkyTrain line.
For tower residents juggling SkyTrain commutes and limited car trips, a third major grocery option inside walking distance is a real shift in the daily loop.
It is also more evidence that Brentwood has graduated past “up and coming” and into a fully wired transit-anchored grocery corridor.
Grosvenor’s pitch positions Brentwood Block as a long-term remake of the SkyTrain station block into a mixed-use community designed around transit, with residential towers stacked above a podium of at-grade retail and street-level shops.
The broader Brentwood corridor has been undergoing a years-long redevelopment push that has reshaped what used to be a mid-density mall-anchored neighbourhood into a tower-dominated transit hub.
A specific opening date for the Thrifty Foods has not been confirmed yet, with Brentwood Block still building out the project around the new tenant.
Brentwood Block joins a wave of recent Burnaby grocery moves alongside the T&T at Gilmore Place and the Whole Foods at Solo District, all anchored along the same SkyTrain stretch.
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Address: Brentwood Block, Burnaby, BC