Island Pacific Market will open its first grocery in San Francisco with a 33,900-square-foot store in the Outer Mission.
The Walnut-based Filipino grocery chain has signed a long-term lease at 2900 Alemany Boulevard, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The property is owned by the Paulus family.
Terms of the lease were not disclosed. The store’s unscheduled opening depends on property renovations and approval by the city. Retail chains are subject to the city’s formula retail rules, which ban chains of more than 11 stores without a conditional permit.
Plans call for a supermarket and restaurant, with Filipino foods and local produce. It would include a full deli, butcher, alcoholic beverages, plus a San Honore Bakery, Chirp Bakery and Boba Opa Tea window, along with supporting kitchens.
The Island Pacific Market will likely feature a Philhouse, the chain’s fast-food restaurant known for such home-style Filipino fare as lechon kawali, chicken adobo and grilled pompano.
It replaces a Pacific Supermarket, an Asian grocer with no connection to the Filipino market, which closed last spring, according to the Business Times.
The store, which would serve a sizable Filipino population living nearby, would be Island Pacific Market’s fifth Bay Area location. The market has stores in Hayward, Pittsburg, Vallejo and Union City, among 19 stores across California and Nevada, according to its website.
Specialty stores such as Island Pacific Market have become top draws for foot traffic.
After H Mart opened a Korean American market in nearby Ingleside Heights in 2021, it became so popular that the New Jersey-based chain filed plans last summer to lease another 27,000 square feet at Oceanview Village Shopping Center.
Critics have called it a “full on snack attack,” with an “aisle of noodle insanity.”
Similarly, Island Pacific Market bills its stores as more than groceries for Filipinos.
In a statement about its new location in L.A.’s Granada Hills, Island Pacific Market called the chain “more than just a grocery store. It is a place where you can immerse yourself in the rich culture and flavors of the Philippines and experience the warmth and hospitality of its people.”
— Dana Bartholomew
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