Hy-Vee announces free grocery and pharmacy delivery after Cedar Rapids store closes, no building use restrictions

CEDAR RAPIDS — Hy-Vee announced Wednesday the company is working with landlords to try to fill the space at its First Avenue NE location so the property does not stay vacant once the store closes June 23, and is offering services to help the neighborhood cope.

Hy-Vee said it is not placing a “use restriction” on this property or its other locations closing soon in Davenport and Waterloo, leaving open the possibility that other grocers could be recruited the sites.

“No business wants to close a location and that certainly includes Hy-Vee,” company spokesperson Tina Potthoff said in a statement. “Over the past several weeks, we have listened to community leaders and residents about the impact of our store closures in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Davenport. Unfortunately, these three stores have each been losing significant amounts of money for several years, and they are simply not feasible for us to operate any longer.”

Cedar Rapids city officials last week said they received assurance in November that Hy-Vee extended the lease of its First Avenue NE store another five years. But the site changed ownership in January and Hy-Vee ultimately announced this month it would close.

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City officials did not immediately know what Hy-Vee planned to do with the location and whether there were lease restrictions.

After a conversation this week with Hy-Vee executives, City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said in a statement that “Hy-Vee’s representatives demonstrated a clear understanding of the challenges and a commitment to collaborating on beneficial solutions.”

He said it is a “positive sign” that Hy-Vee is working with the new First Avenue NE building owner, Delaware-based Agree Limited Partnership, “to avoid vacancy after the store’s closure.”

In addition to working to fill the space, Hy-Vee announced steps to help the neighborhoods around the soon-to-close stores:

Free transportation: Hy-Vee will provide a free shuttle from each closed store to the closest Hy-Vee where pharmacy prescriptions will be transferred, allowing customers to get groceries and medications at the Oakland Road Hy-Vee in Cedar Rapids, Crossroads Hy-Vee in Waterloo and West Locust Hy-Vee in Davenport. The service will run three days a week for four hours at a time on a designated schedule starting the week of June 24 through Sept. 1. Hy-Vee will then “reevaluate their use by the community.”

Free grocery delivery: Hy-Vee will deliver groceries for free to all residents within a 1-mile radius of each store that is closing for one year when they sign up for the service. Customers may sign up beginning June 10. More details will be announced closer to that date. Hy-Vee will require minimum orders of $24.95.

Continuation of free pharmacy delivery: Hy-Vee will continue to provide free pharmacy delivery to Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Davenport residents. The company says it has done this for the past several years for all residents in these cities.

Increased food bank help: Hy-Vee is partnering with HACAP in Cedar Rapids, River Bend Food Bank in Davenport and Northeast Iowa Food Bank in Waterloo to fund, supply and staff food distribution events in July and August while school is out for the summer.

Hy-Vee will support a mobile food pantry in the parking lots of the Hy-Vee stores on First Avenue NE in Cedar Rapids and Rockingham Road in Davenport twice a month. Neighborhoods surrounding each location will be notified of these events in late June. In Waterloo, additional protein such as meat and peanut butter will be donated by Hy-Vee to the food bank as a mobile unit is not available there.

“We value our customers and communities,” Potthoff said. “As a major employer in the area, we remain committed to supporting our local schools, food banks and other nonprofit organizations. It’s what we’ve always done and will continue to do.”

Cedar Rapids city officials met May 14 with community and nonprofit leaders to identify priorities to ensure residents could continue to access essential services after the store closes, Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said in a statement.

“We brought these concerns to our meeting with Hy-Vee, focusing on things like grocery delivery charges, no-cost pharmaceutical deliveries and partnerships with transportation providers and local food-access services for additional assistance during the transition,” O’Donnell said. “It was a positive meeting. We will continue to support efforts to address these challenges and meet our community’s needs.”

Board: Businesses should consider effect of closures

As city officials look to find another use for the space and explore recruiting another grocer to serve the area, members of the Linn County Board of Health said Wednesday the next business to occupy the location should draft an exit strategy that considers the neighborhood it serves. Hy-Vee’s departure leaves no grocery store in the area within a mile and a half, creating a food desert.

Download: 08.2 CR Downtown Food Desert.pdf

This Hy-Vee is located in the Cedar Rapids neighborhood with the highest poverty levels, census data show, with 38.1 percent of downtown residents falling below the federal poverty level — the minimum gross income a household needs for basic necessities. For individuals, that income level is $15,060.

The store also serves some of Cedar Rapids’ most racially diverse neighborhoods, according to census data, with more residents who are Black, Indigenous and other people of color than other areas beyond the city core.

Linn County Supervisor Ben Rogers, who serves on the health board, said there should be a statewide conversation about food systems and infrastructure.

When Hy-Vee’s temporary measures end, Rogers said Linn County Public Health could use its new mobile clinic to potentially refrigerate medicines or deliver medicine. Linn County LIFTS could help people with mobility challenges access transportation.

“This is going to create challenges,” Rogers said. “This is also a group of individuals that can pivot. They shouldn't have to pivot. This is the five-alarm fire that it should be.”

‘More work to do,’ activists say

We Are CR, a nonprofit group, organized a protest Wednesday afternoon outside the First Avenue NE Hy-Vee, initially to criticize the uncertainty surrounding future plans for the building.

After the actions that Hy-Vee announced, Sophia Joseph with We Are CR said the group asks that Hy-Vee reconsider its closure and stay open until Sept. 1 instead of offering free transportation.

We Are CR wants Hy-Vee to provide resources to pay neighborhood canvassers to share resources available with residents, determine the scope of need and gather input on future plans. The nonprofit also asks that Hy-Vee work with the building owner to ensure the building is leased to another grocer.

According to historian Mark Stoffer Hunter, the site has housed a grocery store since 1902, a Kopp family grocery. In the 1930s, Weaver Witwer expanded an old Mom & Pop Grocery into a Me Too grocery supermarket. It was called Witwer's Farm Market grocery supermarket in the late 1950s through the early ‘60s. Hy-Vee acquired the store around 1966 and renamed it Hy-Vee at that time.

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