WinCo never built a promised store on this busy Meridian street. What just happened
WinCo Foods once proposed building a new store on Overland Road in South Meridian near Eagle Road and Interstate 84.
It would have been similar to the employee-owned discount chain’s other grocery stores, with about 85,000 square feet and 150 to 180 employees, the Idaho Statesman reported in 2016. But the store was never built.
A city approval of the store, certifying that it would comply with zoning standards, expired in 2017, according to Statesman reporting at the time. WinCo, all the while, held on to the vacant lot.
On Feb. 5, the company asked the city for permission to divide the nearly 19-acre parcel at 2600 E. Overland Road into two lots.
That’s because a street, Cinema Drive, is planned to be extended through it, according to an application for a permit filed with the city. The street-extension name has already been approved by the Ada County Highway District. The parcel is just east of the Majestic Cinemas theater.
The lot on the north side of the street extension would be bigger, at nearly 12 acres. The lot on the south side would cover nearly 6 acres.
The parcels are just west of Eagle Road near the I-84 interchange. It’s an area that’s seen tremendous growth over the past decade. Mountain View High School is just southwest of the property, and a slew of new businesses have cropped up nearby along Overland Road.
Might a store go on either lot, with other storefronts along Overland Road? WinCo’s stores on West Fairview Avenue in Boise and at Chinden Boulevard and Linder Road in Meridian occupy about 8 acres each, including parking.
The company won’t say.
“At this time, there are no specific plans for development on either of the two parcels that would be created,” the application said.
A spokesperson for the company did not respond to emails and phone calls about the project.
The site remains zoned for commercial use. Its zoning designation, C-G, is specifically for retail and other businesses in “close proximity and/or access to interstate or arterial intersections,” according to Meridian’s zoning code.
It’s not costing WinCo much to hang onto the property. The 18.74 acres’ assessed value in 2024 was a mere $29,400, and the company paid just $146 in property taxes on it, according to the Ada County Assessor’s Office. That’s about half of what the Census Bureau says the average U.S. household spends on groceries in a single week.
WinCo was founded in Boise in 1967. The company has over 100 stores in eight Western states and Texas and Oklahoma, including seven stores in the Treasure Valley — two each in Boise, Nampa and Meridian and one in Eagle.
Business and Local News Editor David Staats contributed.
