A grocery store popular among Asian shoppers may get a new store at one of its East Vancouver locations.

An application has been filed to rezone 3868 Rupert Street, a strip mall that has been home to Chong Lee Market for more than 20 years. Chong Lee Market is a complete store, where customers can buy live seafood, fresh meat, Asian-style barbecue and other takeout food, deli items, fruits and vegetables, and canned and dried grocery items.

In addition to the supermarket, which is the anchor tenant for the commercial property, the businesses on the site include a pizza joint, a café, a medical office, and a beauty salon.

According to the rezoning application filed by GBL Architects, the plan involves the development of a six-storey, mixed-use building.

The proposed development will have commercial spaces on the ground level—to which existing tenants can return after construction—and five storeys with 112 market rental homes. The building will have two levels of underground parking.

“It will be nice and new,” grocery manager Helen Nguyen told the Straight with excitement in a phone interview.

According to Nguyen, the store has been operating at its Renfrew-Collingwood location for 23 years.

Vincent Wong founded Chong Lee Market in 1987; it started as a small store in Chinatown. Its other shop is located on Victoria Drive in Fraserview.