The IDA in Bancroft is getting ready to expand.
The green construction fencing around its adjacent parking lot is to prepare for a roughly 8,000-square-foot addition.
The store’s owner, Mena Yohanna, says the new space will also include room for a Starbucks, but those details are still being worked out with the coffee chain.
Yohanna says the expansion could lead to about 10 new jobs and will allow the drug store and pharmacy to add new products and services, so locals will have to travel less for health care needs.
He also sees the expansion as an important development for Bancroft and hopes the building works with the Town’s plans to revitalize the nearby river area.
“I think it’s very important,” he says. “It’s a beautiful downtown. I think people still have to travel to big cities, like Peterborough or Belleville, to get everything they need. Our goal is to have a little less of that; (to make it so) they don’t have to go as often.”
Yohanna adds that the current store will remain open for the duration of construction. It’s expected to start in January and go on until summer.