Grand Elk Partners LLC, the development company for the $450-million project, is finalizing an agreement for a 50,000-sf to 60,000-sf King Soopers or City Market.

"If it is a King Soopers, it will be the first one in the mountains, other than the store in Bergen Park" says Gary Fritzler, director of real estate for King Soopers, which also owns City Market.

"We would love to see a King Soopers or a City Market in town," says Jerry D. Jones, one of the principals in Grand Elk Partners. "At this stage we are very excited to have a major supermarket in an area that will serve Grand County's full time residents, as well as the millions of visitors who travel annually through this area of Colorado."

The Grand Elk Crossing location for the new supermarket will help to serve an area where a majority of northern Grand County's workforce lives, Jones says. It will also provide easy access to all of the communities in Grand County, including Winter Park, Fraser, Tabernash, Granby, Kremmling, Grand Lake, and Hot Sulphur Springs, and will also be a convenience for those people who live in Steamboat Springs and Walden.

"When we started to research and plan Grand Elk Ranch & Club…we wanted to complement it with a commercial component that would serve Grand County and help to attract more visitors to the area," Jones says.