Spokane-based Rosauers Supermarkets Inc. is expanding its reach geographically with the planned opening this weekend of a grocery store in the burgeoning city of Ridgefield, just north of Vancouver, Washington.

The store is the company’s first located west of the Cascade Mountains.

Rosauers President and CEO Jeff Philipps says the city of Ridgefield approached the supermarket chain company about two years ago to inquire whether there was interest in building a Rosauers there.

“We had a chance to get out here and take a look at the community, and we were very impressed with the amount of growth that’s going on here,” Philipps says.

Ridgefield is the fastest-growing city in Washington in terms of percentage of population increase, according to state Office of Financial Management data. Ridgefield has a population of about 8,900 as of April 1, an increase of over 15% from a year earlier, according to OFM estimates. The city is located about 20 minutes’ drive north of Vancouver, Washington, and an hour north of Portland, Oregon.

Construction on the 53,000-square-foot new Rosauers building in Ridgefield began about nine months ago, Philipps says. He estimates the building cost $8 million to construct, and Rosauers is leasing the structure from the Port of Ridgefield.

The supermarket will employ 110 people.

Philipps says Rosauers currently doesn’t have plans to open a second store west of the Cascades.

“We’re going to see how this store is accepted … in the Ridgefield community, but we’re constantly looking for new locations,” Philipps says. “We’ve found that we have a lot of people who are very excited about us being here, so we’re going to continue to look for sites similar to this one, where we can be part of a community and part of the growth plans for that community.”

The Ridgefield store will offer online ordering and curbside pickup, a service that Philipps says is only available at six of Rosauers’ 22 supermarkets.

The company currently operates stores in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon, including nine stores in the Spokane area. Rosauers is a wholly owned subsidiary of Spokane-based wholesale cooperative URM Stores Inc.