Updated on February 2, 2016 at 10:03 AMPosted on October 14, 2015 at 12:35 PM

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In a statement, New Seasons chief executive Wendy Collie said she aims to open one or two stores each year to "serve as many communities as possible." Pictured here is the Progress Ridge New Seasons store in Beaverton.
(Courtesy of New Seasons Market)

New Seasons Market is continuing to expand its reach outside Oregon. The Portland-based grocer announced Wednesday it plans to open two stores in Northern California's Bay Area in the next two years: one in Emeryville and one in Sunnyvale.

In a statement, New Seasons chief executive Wendy Collie said she hopes to "serve as many communities as possible."

The stores will join the grocer's one existing store in California, which opened in San Jose in March.

Portland private equity firm Endeavour Capital took a majority stake in New Seasons in 2009, its financial backing paving the way for its current growth.

In 2013, New Seasons bought New Leaf Community Markets as a wholly owned subsidiary, taking on eight stores in Northern California. These stores - except for one that New Seasons rebranded - continue to operate under the New Leaf banner.

Jerry Chevassus, New Seasons' head of store development, said he aims to open one or two stores each year in each of the grocer's markets: Puget Sound, Portland and the Bay Area.

"It's a step up," he said of the plan. "But we're prepared for it. We're being very thoughtful about it."We're not just out there building stores and gobbling up real estate."

Chevassus isn't new to the commercial real estate game: Though New Seasons hired him about a year ago, he previously headed REI's real estate division.

Chevassus outlined New Seasons' strategy for choosing locations: It targets neighborhoods in the process of gentrification, he said. Often, the addition of a New Seasons will push rents and home values higher, adding to that process.

He also touted the grocer's flexibility. New Seasons' smallest store, on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, is 17,000 square feet. Its largest, at 50,000 square feet, is in Happy Valley.

"We don't shy away from challenging locations," Chevassus said. "We're like a chameleon. We don't have cookie-cutter stores; every store is unique."

New Seasons' timetable for growth has some wondering if it's following in the footsteps of Whole Foods. Whole Foods, founded in Austin, Texas, as a small natural foods store, now operates more than 400 stores throughout the country and is a Fortune 500 company.

However, Collie told The Oregonian in July that she doesn't plan on taking her company public, at least not any time soon. For now, New Seasons is content to keep growing as a private company.

The grocer currently operates 17 stores: 15 in Oregon, one in Vancouver and one in California. It plans to open its first store in the Seattle area, on Mercer Island, next fall.

New Seasons, which opened a store in Northwest Portland's Slabtown in August, will open its Woodstock location on Oct. 21. Another store is scheduled to open in North Portland, near St. Johns, next year.

Chevassus said though New Seasons is considering locations in both Portland's suburbs and its urban centers, the urban locations have proven especially successful.