Griesbach residents have been waiting for a grocery store since 2013. It's not happening
CBC
The southeast corner of Edmonton's Griesbach neighbourhood has long been a sore spot.
After sitting vacant for years, construction is underway on new mid-rise apartments at 97th Street and 137th Avenue, but the site won't become the easily accessible grocery store local residents were expecting.
Sobeys bought the land in 2013 but never built on it, and more than a decade later, a restrictive covenant is still there. Restrictive covenants are binding legal agreements that limit what property owners can do, and they're attached to land titles, so they typically carry on even if the property is sold.
In this case, Griesbach residents say the restrictive covenant bars grocers, as well as similar businesses like bakeries and butcher shops.
Griesbach Community League president Carl Knowler said he's glad the lot will no longer be empty. Deveraux Developments is putting apartment buildings in the spot originally planned for a grocery store, and commercial developer Forum is leasing out businesses in the surrounding plaza.
But the types of shops and businesses directly connected to the neighbourhood are still being constrained — the commercial properties around the former grocery store site are also limited by the same restrictive covenants.
"Having more residents in that area is going to help the businesses. So it's time to move on and say, at least it's going to be developed," Knowler said.
"But residents — it's still in their minds. They're still upset about the whole thing."
When City of Edmonton planning officials recommended allowing rezoning for residential development on the site, they noted their hands were tied, too.
"In this case, the purpose of the restrictive covenant is to protect Sobeys interest in the market and avoid competition from other grocery store chains," a 2022 report reads.
"The City does not have the ability to force the original owner of the site (nor the new owner) to have the restrictive covenant removed."
Canada's Competition Bureau launched investigations earlier this year into Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and Empire Company Ltd., the parent companies of grocery chains Loblaws and Sobeys. The agency is examining whether the use of property controls, including restrictive covenants, is limiting retail grocery competition.
Griesbach residents banded together in 2019 to lodge complaints with the Competition Bureau over the impact of the restrictive covenant in their neighbourhood.
Knowler and Brad Tilley, who was community league president during that period, said that the Competition Bureau ultimately told them the situation didn't meet all the criteria that would constitute a violation of the Competition Act, mainly because there are still other nearby grocery stores they can access.