Vallis IGA ready to be rebuilt three years after arson attack gutted the Hamlyn Heights store
A beloved Hamlyn Heights supermarket destroyed in a 2019 fire is a step closer to returning, with the excited owners revealing the progress of a planned modern rebuild.
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A family-run supermarket destroyed by an arsonist is ready to be rebuilt, as the excited owners prepare to sign off on a contract to build a new multimillion-dollar modern store in its place.
Three years after Vallis IGA on Vines Rd in Hamlyn Heights was gutted by the deliberately lit fire, Frank Valenti – who owns the business with his three siblings – said the family had received an approved planning permit to construct a new supermarket.
Mr Valenti said the family hoped to sign off on a builder contract in coming weeks.
“I’m hoping to start in May, which would give us an opening of February or March next year,” he said on Wednesday.
“We’re all eager to get in there and start working.”
The new supermarket is expected to cost $4.5m according to planning documents lodged with the City of Greater Geelong in late 2020, and planned to be 50 per cent larger than the previous building.
“The plans are beautiful,” Mr Valenti said.
“We’ll have a lot more space - half the shop will be a fresh section with produce, a bakery and deli.”
“Before the fire we had a kitchen upstairs where we were cooking our own meals and cakes, and now we’ve expanded that kitchen. It’s a huge kitchen, so we’ll be able to do a lot of instore cooking – from sweets to meals to pastries.”
The Hamlyn Heights Vallis IGA – which has been owned by the Valenti family for more than 40 years – has operated out of a minimart at a nearby Vines Rd site since about six months after the March 4, 2019 fire.
The arson attack had left 35 people without work and racked up a total loss and damage bill estimated by insurers at the time to have been more than $4m.
Zach Brennan, 30, pleaded guilty to arson in October 2019, and was jailed for five years and three months, with a non-parole period of three years and six months.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Valenti described the lasting impact of the fire.
“To see my parents arrive on the day of the fire, the street blocked off, helplessly watching 40 years of hard work burning down; that awful feeling, standing with them on that morning, will not go away,” Mr Valenti said.
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Originally published as Vallis IGA ready to be rebuilt three years after arson attack gutted the Hamlyn Heights store
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