WinCo Foods LLC, the low-price grocery store, has submitted its plans with the city of Bend to move into the now-shuttered Shopko location in northeast Bend.

No date has been made public for when WinCo will open, but it’s expected to be this spring or summer, said Darcy Todd, city of Bend building and permit technician.

WinCo did not provide any details on the expansion plans, nor return phone calls or emails to The Bulletin.

It’s a smart move to locate in an already built location, said Ben Hemson, city of Bend business advocate. WinCo will avoid the full cost of building from the ground up.

“If you build a grocery store, you have to think about paying for system development charges, transportation, sewer and park impact fees,” Hemson said. “They’re able to reduce some of those costs since the Shopko site already had paid SDCs (system development charges) for a large retail.”

Few new details have emerged. The Boise-based supermarket has signed a lease for the 106,216-square-foot building that had housed Shopko at 60 NE Bend River Mall Ave. That signing caused Bend’s retail vacancy rate to fall dramatically in the third quarter to 3.3%, compared to 5.39% vacancy rate in the second quarter of 2019, according to Compass Commercial.

Todd said the building permit calls for upgrades to the former Shopko’s building facade. Details outlining the building permit were not public.

Green Bay-based Shopko filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year and closed the Bend location. Since then it closed all of its brick-and-mortar locations after 57 years in business. When it closed its Bend location in April, it was one of 250 store closures.

WinCo also has agreed to locate a new store at a former Shopko location in Eugene, bringing the total to three stores in the greater Eugene area. News reports also show that WinCo plans to open a store in Wenatchee, Washington, in a former Shopko location.

Founded in 1967 as a Waremart, according to the company’s website, the chain’s predominant presence was in the Pacific Northwest through the 1970s. It became employee-owned through an employee stock ownership program in 1985. It is known for its low prices, not accepting credit cards and requiring customers to bag their own groceries.

The grocery chain operates a 1-million-square-foot distribution center in Woodburn. It has 18,000 employees and 126 retail stores in 10 U.S. states, according to WinCo’s website.