By JIM WELTE, Half Moon Bay Review
In a town where the construction of a single-family home can take years, many Coastsiders won't be surprised that the effort to rebuild Cunha's Country Grocery store has hit a snag or two in recent weeks.
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Breaking ground is expected to start in mid-September.
"We're hoping we'll be ready to start stocking the shelves by April or May," store co-owner Bev Ashcraft said. "The plans are almost ready."
The downtown Half Moon Bay Cunha's store perished in a six-alarm fire more than two months ago. The demolition of the building's remains took several weeks because of concerns about the existence of asbestos within the structure.
Since late June, the lot at the corner of Main Street and Kelly Avenue has sat vacant. Some work has been done on the lot since then, including soil samples taken by Charles Kissick, principal engineer with Sigma Prime Geosciences in Princeton, to determine what type of foundation the new building will need.
Local contractor Bruce Turner, who has spearheaded much of the effort to rebuild the store, said delays in designing the interior of the new store have set the project back a few weeks, meaning the project might not break ground until mid- to late-September.
"We've had some delays with refrigeration and how to arrange the equipment inside the store," he said. "But we're still looking at six to eight months from when we break ground."
Turner's preliminary designs called for a nearly exact replica of the original building, with several adjustments to account for updated fire, safety and environmental health codes, as well as new requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The new building will reportedly also include a cupola at its peak, a feature included in the original building, built in 1900.
Despite delays, the project is proceeding along swiftly, Turner said.
"A lot will rest on the city's building department and the county's environmental health department," he said. "They've really worked very closely with us and have assured us that they can make the processing of the application as fast as possible."
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