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(Editor's Note: This story was expanded on Friday to include photos and additional details about Bottom Dollar, and to correct an error in the headline.)

A major southern grocery chain is making its first move into the Pittsburgh market by building a new store in the city's Christy Park neighborhood.

Tube City Almanac has learned that Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., will open the first of a dozen planned Pittsburgh-area "Bottom Dollar" neighborhood grocery stores next fall in McKeesport, on the site of the former S&S Taxi Co. garage and Keystone Auto Parts.

Neither city officials nor the developer, Commercial Properties Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., would confirm or deny that rumor, citing confidentiality agreements.

Indeed, architectural drawings of the store that were presented to the city planning commission on Thursday afternoon carried no name --- just the words "Food Store."

. . .

However, those drawings depict a store identical to others erected by Food Lion for its Bottom Dollar chain. According to published reports, Bottom Dollar is planning a major move into the northern United States.

Bottom Dollar has just opened seven stores in eastern Pennsylvania and has another 10 pending, according to the company's website.

And the developer is one used elsewhere in the United States by Food Lion. The store would represent Food Lion's first attempt to enter the crowded Pittsburgh market, which is dominated by locally based Giant Eagle.

In fact, the proposed McKeesport store will compete head-to-head with the Shop 'n Save and Save-a-Lot located in nearby Olympia Shopping Center, and with a long-established Giant Eagle at the corner of Eden Park and O'Neil boulevards.

. . .

Yet Bradley Tillman, president of Commercial Properties --- while not identifying his client --- said it is confident it will make inroads. Pittsburgh grocery prices are artificially high compared to those in other northeastern cities, he said.

"We're planning on coming into this market with a regular neighborhood grocery store, and we think we're going to be competitive," Tillman said.

The store will be relatively small by modern standards --- about 18,000 square feet --- and will not have a deli department or a bakery, although both deli meats and baked goods will be sold, he said.

That corresponds with stories about Bottom Dollar in grocery trade journals, which describe the chain as a so-called "soft discounter." Bottom Dollar sells a wider selection of name brand items than the competing Aldi and Save-a-Lot chains, but like those stores, keeps its overhead low by eliminating delis and bakeries.

. . .

But the store will carry fresh produce, Tillman said, who called it a return to the pre-World War II model, when supermarkets were smaller and located closer to residential neighborhoods.

"It's something like the old A&P's," he told the Almanac following a Wednesday meeting with the city planning commission. Consumers are becoming fed up with the cost of driving to big regional superstores such as Wal-Mart, and will shop at a store close to home if it offers good prices, Tillman said.

"It's going back to the neighborhood grocery store format," he said.

. . .

Tillman said his client plans "12 to 15" stores around Pittsburgh. Newly elected state Sen. James Brewster, city Democrat, said he wants to work with Tillman to make sure some of those stores are located in the 45th Senatorial District.

Brewster, who is resigning as the city's mayor after seven years in office, predicted that the new store wouldn't harm the city's existing supermarkets, but would benefit residents. "Competition is good," he said Thursday.

And Brewster said the store fits with the city's goal of developing the Walnut Street corridor as the city's new commercial center.

"To see these buildings go away and a new building with new lighting going in --- it's a good thing," he said.

. . .

According to blueprints filed with the city Planning Commission, the supermarket will sit near the intersection of Eden Park Boulevard and Rockwood Street, behind a parking lot holding 113 cars. Entrances will be built on Walnut and Eden Park.

No changes to either street are necessary and the construction complies with all city zoning ordinances, said Chris House, code enforcement officer. The plans were approved Thursday by a 5-0 vote.

The store's construction will require a machine shop and a fitness center to relocate. The former Eat 'n Park, Keystone Auto Parts and Paul Jones Dodge will all be demolished, city officials said.

Tillman said his client paid approximately $800,000 for the three parcels, owned by the Bondy family of White Oak. Construction is slated to begin in the spring.

Correction, Not Perfection: This story's headline originally said the store would be located in the "11th Ward." The parcels are in the city's 12th Ward. We regret the error.

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