Tony’s Meats out, Marczyk’s Fine Foods in as transformation of former Safeway in southeast Denver moves forward

John Leyba, The Denver Post

Nicole Solazzo on Thursday puts the final touches on key lime pies for the holiday weekend at Marczyk Fine Foods in Denver.

The third location of upscale Denver grocery store Marczyk’s Fine Foods will be the new main attraction inside a former Safeway building near the corner of Happy Canyon Road and East Hampden Avenue.

Marczyk’s, which bills itself as “Denver’s favorite neighborhood market,” has two stores in the city today, one at 770 E. 17th Ave. and another at 5100 E. Colfax Ave. It got started in Uptown in 2002 before the neighborhood saw the wave of investment that has transformed it over the last decade.

With this forthcoming location in Southmoor Park, the mini-chain is pushing into new suburban turf, but co-founder and CEO Pete Marczyk wouldn’t call it a gamble. Company data shows that the 80222 ZIP code sends more customers into his stores than nearly any other part of town.

“This is the first location of the three that I haven’t just been laughed at,” Marczyk said. “We feel this is an underserved neighborhood and we think we can make a go of it.”

Slated to open late next year, the store is expected to be around 5,000 square feet. It will have a selection of fresh produce, a deli, butcher counter, frozen foods and fresh-baked bread. It will also allow Marczyk’s to expand the reach of its delivery service, done through technology partner Instacart.

The store will not be alone in the old Safeway. A handful of other businesses are expected to fill out the 40,000-square-foot building, including a large-format liquor store, a pair of sit-down restaurants and possibly an ice cream shop, according to Bellray Holdings president and CEO Buzz Calkins.

Bellray has owned the building since the spring after buying some of the outstanding mortgage debt and taking the deed instead of foreclosing. Calkins, who owns the Dunkin Donuts franchise at the corner of Happy Canyon and Hampden, also bought the larger Happy Canyon strip shopping center earlier this year, paying $24.2 million to obtain it the bankruptcy estate of his former landlord, Gary Dragul, according to Harvey Sender, the attorney overseeing the bankruptcy. Dragul has been indicted on more than a dozen counts of securities fraud related to his real estate dealings, which Sender has characterized in lawsuits as a Ponzi scheme.

“Hopefully, we’re getting this project back on track and going in the right direction,” Calkins said of the Safeway-turned-market-hall transformation first announced two years ago. “In essence, it’s a bit of a food desert for all these different neighborhoods out here that are just desperate to have choices.”

Calkins said the larger shopping center will soon be getting a facelift. With many longterm tenants already in place, he said he looking forward to refining the offerings there to meet the needs of the neighborhood.

The Marczyk’s announcement comes just weeks after another Denver fine foods chain, Tony’s Meats & Market, took to its website to say it was no longer part of the Safeway project. The more than 40-year-old company, which first announced it would headline the market hall in late 2017, posted on its website last month that it could not reach a “mutually beneficial” agreement with Bellray.

Pete Marczyk said he only began talking with Calkins about the opportunity after Tony’s had passed. He lauded the competing fine food shop for its longevity in a challenging industry. When it came to working with Calkins, Marczyk said he is confident his business is entering into a long-term relationship.

“This was fast deal for us,” he said of the ease of working with Calkins. “We do everything slow except bag groceries.”