Brand-new Georgia Market open for business

By JACQUELINE CAIN | Staff Writer
jackie@miltonindependent.com

The dust has settled.

The new Georgia Market opened to customers in November, and the old building was demolished right before the holidays. The store’s front porch is a work in progress and paving will take place this spring. Storeowner Ray Bouffard is pleased with the outcome and is planning a grand opening celebration for later this winter, he said.

“We used a great group of local contractors who take pride in their work and made us a great building within a decent timeline,” he said.

The new 10,000-square foot building is nearly twice the size of the former store.

The expansion project, which broke ground last July, was executed to create a roomier store to enhance shoppers’ experience, Bouffard told the Independent last summer.

Bouffard, a resident of Colchester and owner of Georgia Market since 2005, used mainly local crews for all aspects of the project, from the building’s conception to the hauling away of the former structure, he said.

“We’re very pleased to be able to spend our money here in the community. It’s good for everybody,” he said.

Workers from Alan Mossey & Sons Excavating dismantled Georgia’s post office outlet at the market on December 14; the new building still has post office boxes and will serve the town’s postal needs, Bouffard said. Mossey crews returned the next day to demolish the rest of the old store.

Knocking down the old structure took longer than Bouffard had originally intended.

“We had hoped that the weekend we opened [November 11] would be when we would knock [the old building] down, but the permitting process slowed us down,” he said, explaining that the state was backed up in granting demolition permits due to damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene.

Bouffard said customers have been understanding and used the temporary ramp access into the store when the former building stood in the way of its main entrance.

April Johnson shopped in the meat section of the new Georgia Market on December 14. A 30-year Georgia resident, Johnson said she frequents the market.

“Ray’s done a great job with the store, and he really needed more space for all the products he was carrying. It’s turned into a great place to shop,” she said.

Johnson said she had already visited the new store several times and was looking forward to a better parking situation, which came with the demolition of the old building later that week.

While the wrecking was delayed, Bouffard had the chance to dismantle the store piece-by-piece and repurpose some of the original material.

Bouffard approached the Franklin/Grand Isle branch of Habitat for Humanity  about donating some of the used building materials, said George Bilodeau, a past Habitat president, development director and current member of the board. The non-profit received some of Georgia Market’s lighting fixtures, shelving, doors and air conditioners, Bilodeau said.

A local family sided their neighbors’ house with the former Georgia Market siding, Bouffard added.

“Probably half the building has been given away,” he said. “It makes more sense to give it away and get it repurposed than to pay to have it hauled away into a landfill, which doesn’t do anybody any good.”

Bouffard declined to reveal the full cost for the new Georgia Market; he said that the store is his family business, and he received no corporate financing.