New Metro Market Downtown – Opening Friday, August 22, 2014

New Metro Market Downtown – Opening Friday, August 22, 2014

A new market opening Friday next to Augusta Common will let downtown shoppers purchase anything from a quick meal and a glass of wine to a tube of toothpaste.

After nine months of renovation, Sprint Food Stores Inc. will open its first Metro Market.

The downstairs portion of the 11,000-square-foot building at 851 Broad St. will sell grocery staples, toiletries, snacks, wine by the bottle and glass, craft beer and gourmet cheeses. The “high-end convenience store” also includes a frozen yogurt bar, a gourmet coffee area, and soda and slushy machines.

Touch-screen kiosks will allow shoppers to place orders for breakfast, lunch and dinner meals that will be prepared in an on-site kitchen and paid for at the counter.

“We’re hoping it’s not only there for convenience and necessity, but that it also kind of revitalizes some of downtown,” said Anna Felz, the director of marketing for Sprint Foods and the Metro Market.

The store will offer both indoor and outdoor seating, including a second-floor rooftop patio that overlooks the common.

Felz said the business’s liquor license allows customers to buy a wine bottle and consume it at the store. The bottle can be re-corked and taken with them if unfinished. Beer bottles from a pack also can be consumed at the market, and any remaining bottles can be taken home so long as they are unopened.

The Metro Market will be open daily from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, and from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Sunday. The business hours, however, are flexible with downtown events, Felz said.

“Basically, with anything going on down here, we’ll be open,” she said.

Upstairs, the building will house the company’s support center, which has moved from Enterprise Mill, and a conference room that can be rented out for business meetings and luncheons. The Metro Market also offers catering services.

Sprint Foods purchased the Broad Street building for $235,000 in 2011.

The company operates 15 fuel stations and convenience stores across the area. The Broad Street store will not include a gas station.