A Smith’s Marketplace Saturday is opening in Heber City, and no, you are not experiencing an intense bout of déjà vu. The new location at 744 North Main Street is less than half a mile from where the existing Smith’s sits only a few blocks away. The older site was opened in 1997.
The new 123,000-square-foot building, however, holds several new benefits for Smith’s Marketplace, Heber City and customers throughout the community.
Matt Brower, Heber City’s city manager, said the new location will provide significantly higher property and sales tax revenues to the city than the old building. And while he didn’t give exact numbers, he said Smith’s Marketplace is already one of the top five revenue producers for the municipality.
“Estimates suggest the new store will generate approximately $300,000 more in annual sales tax than their existing store,” Brower said.
According to Smith’s, the new location also necessitated the store to hire 88 new employees to staff the store along with 135 workers who are transferring from the older location.
Brower that the larger location’s apparel and general household items merchandise will also prevent sales tax leakage, which is when a community misses out on tax revenue because its consumers choose to buy their products online or in a different location.
On top of the financial benefit, he’s also optimistic about the community’s reaction to the new facility, which resembles a barn, features a mural of Heber Valley by local artist John Moore and will contain a Starbucks with seasonal outdoor seating.
“The new Smith’s will also provide city and county residents with a state-of-the-art retail shopping experience. It’s also expected the new store will pull shoppers in from the Jordanelle Basin and Summit County,” he said. “The store’s architecture was masterfully done.”
To provide the adequate infrastructure for the store — including road-width expansion, upsizing water and sewer lines and increasing the size of the intersection — Heber City invested $1.6 million. The store itself cost $40 million to build.
Its doors open to the public Saturday at 8 a.m.