Adam Kennedy saw an opportunity left behind.

He opened Kennedy’s Lakeside Grocery at the foot of an office tower. A grocery store that once operated in the downtown area had closed to make room for condos and office towers.

The number of downtown residents has been growing in Barrie, Ontario, due to urban redevelopment. However, no grocery store remained within walking distance for the new residents.

So when Kennedy approached Barrie city hall with his idea for a new downtown market, he felt welcomed.

In the early months after opening, he discovered his shopping community.

His primary shoppers have been older adults seeking easy access to good, local food – some to be prepared fresh each day as take-home meals.

His initial inventory needed to change quickly to adapt to customers’ needs.

“When we opened the doors we tried to be everything to everyone,” says Kennedy. “We’ve also leaned in a little more into the nicer things.”

Occasionally Kennedy might source specialty items from Italy or Greece, for instance, but for the most part he has developed relationships with local farms and suppliers, drawing from his own area and province and sometimes a little further out. He brings in popcorn from New Brunswick, milk in glass bottles, offers freshly sliced deli meats and boasts that Kennedy’s is the only place locally where customers can buy a ribeye steak cut straight off the loin.

“The model was looking at some of our favourite stores in Toronto” where he had lived for 10 years, Kennedy said. “We were very, very close to Bruno’s (a family business with three stores in the Toronto area that focuses on fresh and quality food and gourmet groceries, catering services and personalized gift baskets)” and other independent and unique establishments.

Kennedy also wanted to sell meals-to-go at a level of quality not available through the larger chains. Among his staff is a red seal chef, creating fresh dishes throughout the day.

Those meals account for about one-third of the store’s business, drawing not just from the area’s residents, but also city hall across the street, the courthouse on the next block, a satellite college campus and offices all around and above him in the commercial building his store occupies.

Kennedy continues to tweak his business model. Everything is on the table, he said. The future may see a hot table for the take-out food, a coffee counter and bistro tables out front during the summer.

“We are at the very beginning of something,” he says.