Grocery Chain May Open Store : Retailer: Smith’s Food & Drug, based in Salt Lake City, is looking at the site of the old Colley Ford dealership on Grand Avenue south of Alosta.

A Smith’s Food & Drug Center may open in Glendora on the site of a former auto dealership sometime next year if a final agreement is reached between the company and city officials.

The project is in the preliminary phase, Deputy City Manager Culver Heaton said.

Engineering consultants have found that the market would have no significant effect on traffic or surrounding businesses, paving the way for construction of the store on a five-acre site on Grand Avenue south of Alosta Avenue.

Marci Blaze, spokeswoman for Smith’s, confirmed that the corporation is looking at several locations in Glendora but said it has not made an official agreement with the city. The company, however, does plan to open a store in the city sometime in 1992, she said.

Heaton estimated that the market would bring the city $120,000 in annual sales tax revenue.

“It certainly will be a boost to adjacent projects . . . and enhance the climate of the whole block on Grand Avenue,” he said.

If the plans materialize, Agora Development Inc. of Newport Beach will build the store on the site of the old Colley Ford dealership, which moved to the new Glendora Auto Center about three months ago, Heaton said. Agora has proposed building an 80,000-square-foot supermarket and an additional 22,000 square feet of commercial shops.

Smith, based in Salt Lake City, has built only one store in California, Blaze said, and it is scheduled to open Sept. 12 in Oxnard. The chain intends to open nine stores in Southern California this year, including one in Covina, she added. Fifteen stores are planned in the state within the next five years.

The family-owned chain has almost 100 outlets in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

Heaton said that when he toured a Smith’s market in Salt Lake City recently, he was impressed with the variety of services offered--including dry cleaning, one-hour photo, pharmacy, video rental, deli, salad bar and banking.

“Smith is coming to California in a big way” and Glendora would be happy to be part of the growth, Heaton said. “They have a whole different market concept.”

NEXT STEP

The City Council has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday on a conditional-use permit for the sale of alcoholic beverages.