When completed, the city will have a $3.2 million convenience centre underpinned by an IGA outlet. There is also room for a specialty shop and nearly 100 car spaces on the lower Rankin Street site.

Approval consent for the project was granted by council in April, but only after the developer had to come up with a Section 94 contribution of $32,508 to cover a car parking shortage of four spots.

Under council’s Development Control Plan (DCP), 102 spaces were required, but there was only provision for 98.

Bathurst Regional Council’s director of environmental, plann-ing and development services David Shaw said it’s more good news for the city and a reflection of investor confidence in the region.

“The Bernardi Family Trust is behind this venture,” he said. “Their vision is to cater for what they believe is a convenience factor that people want when they go to the shops.

“Basically, it’s about being able to pull up and park somewhere close to the outlet, walk inside and grab what they want without the hustle and bustle of a shopping centre.

“It’s much the same principle held with the old IGA before it was closed down to make way for the new Bathurst City Centre.”

Joe Bernardi told the Western Advocate they expect to be open around November 2012.

“As a time frame, that’s about standard for a development of this type,” he said.

“It will be a Supa IGA store with a separate Discount Dave’s specialty shop.

“They are already trading in Bathurst, but will make the move to our development when we open.”

Mr Bernardi said the outlet would be a full line supermarket with the ability to compete on pricing with the other majors in town.

“We’ve had that much support to build a new IGA in Bathurst since we closed down,” he said. “We’ve been inundated with letters from people wanting that convenience factor back to be able to shop fresh every day.

“We see Bathurst as a genuine growth opportunity for us. At the same time we are also building a new $5 million Supa IGA at Forbes and also have stores in Blayney and West Wyalong.”

Mr Shaw said it’s a multi-million dollar development which will have access from both Rankin and George streets.

He said it is envisaged it will create an additional 75 to 100 full-time jobs.

Mr Shaw noted that although the site is located in the local heritage conservation area, council’s heritage officer also supported the demolition of the former home of the Bathurst Automotive Group which was on the site.