A new supermarket at Southside may be open this time next year, says to a representative of White & Sons.

The supermarket will become a chain when they open the former general store of the US naval base, adding a Southside sister to their Warwick base.

Michael White said yesterday the plan to open St. David's first grocery store was moving along nicely. "I would say we'd be opening in the next year to 18 months,'' he said.

When Southside was a US Navy base, the store sold groceries and general goods so the building is already well equipped for the transition. It already has refrigeration and storage areas for frozen and fresh produce.

The building has been empty since the Americans pulled out in 1995 and the company has submitted a planning application to make a few renovations and additions to the existing structure on Corregidor Avenue.

When the grocery store opens it will include a small liquor department and pharmacy as well as general groceries, according to the proposed layout submitted to the Department of Planning.

The building is currently 35,495 square feet and occupies 24 percent of the 150,500 square foot lot. The planning application calls for a minimal enlargement of the building by 117 square feet.

Among the renovations planned are filling in existing windows and doors with concrete and installing other and constructing a new concrete pad off the transformer vault.

The north facing entrance will also be modified should planning approval be granted. The company wants to put columns in place at the entrance and extend the canopy above the entrance.

White & Sons are also asking to add a new generator room on an existing concrete pad with an existing roof. And they plan to install a new exterior skylight with metal halide floodlights.

"Southside is a quickly developing area and will definitely need some kind of food outlet,'' Rev. Wilbur Lowe said last night. "I think the new White's store will serve the Southside and St. David's community well.'' Rev. Lowe is one of the Members of Parliament for St. George's South but also the owner of St. David's only convenience store, which is located at St.

David's lighthouse.

"We'll probably be hit quite hard (by the new grocery store),'' he said last night. "But what we will try to do is provide goods to the community that they might not be able to get at White's, such as homemade goods and fresh fish.'' Although his store may lose a little business, Rev. Lowe said he thinks over all the people of St. David's "look very positively'' on the addition of a grocery store.

And he said that the new store should also bring employment opportunities to the parish. "I look forward to it opening up some jobs for St. David's people and kids,'' he said.