Can Alemany Boulevard handle two specialty Asian grocery stores within a mile of each other? The Filipino grocery chain Island Pacific Market thinks so, and has submitted applications to move into a vacant spot not far from the wildly popular H Mart.

The April 2021 opening of Korean grocery chain H Mart has been a big enough hit that they were expanding their footprint at the Ocean View Village shopping center barely a year after opening. So clearly there's an appetite for an Asian specialty grocery store in that neighborhood.

And another chain thinks there’s even more appetite, as the SF Business Times reported Tuesday that the Filipino grocery chain Island Pacific Market has applied with the SF Planning Department to put a location in a large vacant storefront less than a mile from H Mart.

It shouldn’t be much of a culture shock, as the vacant, 33,910-square-foot space they’re taking over was previously called Pacific Market. Though more importantly, that means the internal infrastructure for a grocery store is already largely in place.

And the concept is similar to H Mart, which has its own little food court inside, and the Island Pacific Market would too. Per the Business Times, Island Pacific Market’s food court would contain a Boba Opa Tea, Chirp Bakery, and San Honore Bakery.

Though as Eater SF notes, Island Pacific Market’s challenge won’t be renovating the vacant space so much as it may be getting through SF’s formula retail rules. The chain lists 19 stores statewide and in Nevada, which will indeed draw a formula retail review.

Related: Popular Korean Grocery Store H Mart To Open First San Francisco Location on April 21 [SFist]

Image: Island Pacific Supermarket via Yelp