Businessmen brothers planning $1.5m expansion of Eglinton store

Manpreet and Manjit Singh, who already have two stores in Orange, are the new owners of the Eglinton landmark that has been part of the community for decades.

They are hoping to expand the existing store into the unit that is part of the current building as well as take the store further into the large block at the back.

"We could have started [the business] as it is," Manpreet Singh said.

"But I don't want that. Then you eventually have to close again for the renos and people will be cranky, [saying] 'what's going on?'.

"I said go with the big picture."

That big picture, they say, will include a car park for 15 to 20 vehicles at the back and room for four or five cars at the front.

Inside, they say their vision is to turn the business from a store into a 400 to 500 square metre supermarket (as part of the SPAR chain) to save Eglinton locals from having to go into Bathurst for their grocery shopping.

They would also like to see if they can get a licence to sell liquor down the track.

Mr Singh said he has been a resident of Bathurst for 12 years and he has taken note of how quickly Eglinton - where a lot of the city's recent residential expansion has been concentrated - has been growing.

"We have just started with the engineers and architects and will have to go through council," he said of the timeline for the expansion.

"Hopefully we will start running in six or seven months, though it depends on the circumstances.

"But that's my projection. After six, seven months, it will be nice and new: a fresh-look store."

The Western Advocate reported in 2012 that Bathurst Regional Council had plans for a boom in the residential population on the city's north-west outskirts, having had the Eglinton Village Expansion Local Environmental Study (LES) prepared in 2006.

Then-mayor Greg Westman said Eglinton, out of all the villages in the region, had the best scope for sustainable growth.

"Its close proximity to Bathurst is a key and all along people have shown a willingness to live out that way," he said.

As well as the new housing subdivisions that have been developed in the years that have followed, Eglinton has also welcomed the Church Block Cafe and a childcare centre that operates next to the general store.

Mr Singh said the Eglinton General Store had been sold by @realty Arshdeep Natt.

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