One of the main amenities missing from the heart of Downtown is a convenient market option for quick on-the-go food shopping. Sam Shalash hopes to fill some of that demand later this summer when he opens up the C-Town Market and Deli at the corner of State and Fourth Streets.
The new convenience store will sell everything from deli sandwiches to snacks to aspirin to beer and wine. Shalash is optimistic that the store could be open as early as mid-July, but said that it may not actually open until early-August.
“I’m an entrepreneur and businessman, and own a chain of beer and wine drive-thrus in Columbus,” said Shalash. “The owner of the building approached me with the idea of putting some sort of retail store in there. We went down there to check it out, and I liked the space the the location.”
To help determine the demand for products and services to provide, Shalash conducted his own study sampling of the downtown market. “Nothing fancy… just got out there and started asking some questions,” he said. “A theme came about really quickly; a lot of people said there wasn’t a place to get a good healthy bite to eat.”
Shalash toyed with the idea of building a chain restaurant franchise in the spot, and several companies showed an interest in moving into the Downtown Columbus market, but he said that he wanted to keep the food offerings more wholesome, as well as offer more than just food. “Why just do a deli? Lets do a little market to go along with it.”
The store hours are still being finalized, but Shalash plans to start out by keeping the business open until 8pm on weekdays. “It won’t take much at all to get my hours to kick in until the wee hours of the night,” he added. “To be honest with you, we’ve already had people knocking on the door until 11pm. We’ll be open later as soon as the demand is there.”
Shalash said that he could be ready to open within two to three weeks, but is still going through the last of the build out and inspection phases. “I really wanted to be open for Red White & Boom, and the ridiculous amount of people that would be around, but the biggest thing is having to deal with inspections,” he explained. “They come in and find something that needs changed, and then you’ve got to get your contractors back in to fix it, and then they’ve got to come back to reinspect. Basically this is what’s dragging things on.”
Many downtown workers and residents are already watching the location closely and looking for signs of when the grand opening might occur. Until then, we’ll keep everyone updated on the progress and share more information just as soon as we get it.
Photo by Jon Averyt.