Estella supermarket will go ahead despite sale

THE Estella supermarket site is up for sale but the triumvirate of developers has promised the project will not be canned."It is most definitely going ahead," one of the developers, Kevin Pascall, said."We're just looking at selling the land (with) all the DAs. We just had a few things come up ... circumstances with a couple of fellows I'm in the development with changed."The land has been on the market for a few weeks, with the development applications for a supermarket and speciality stores already given the green light by Wagga City Council. All that is needed to get the project going is a construction certificate, the selling agent said.Raine and Horne's Steve Millard, said there has been plenty of interest in the property and with the land zoned retail, the complex will go ahead."At the moment we are talking to two different groups of people - one is developers and the other is owner/operators," he said."We're just working with both of those, and at the moment we're not sure which way it will go. Either way, it will be a national chain like IGA or Metcash, or private investors operating their own supermarket."Already earmarked to service the existing population of Estella, Boorooma and the university, the supermarket has another 600 housing lots behind it and ongoing work surrounding the site."It's going to be right in the middle of Estella," Mr Millard said."The reason it's stagnated is the population is not here right now to support it, but in 12 months time (when it's built) it will be. "The trade area out here is much better than in (suburbs like) Tatton, because there's no competition - the closest supermarket is in Gurwood Street."Both Mr Millard and Mr Pascall are adamant that once sold, the supermarket will be finished by the second half of next year.