A Haggen grocery store will replace the Albertsons on Palo Verde and Spring Street, representatives for the brand announced.

The chain, which was founded in 1933 and operates stores in Washington and Oregon, supports regional farms, ranchers, fisheries and other businesses, according to a statement from Haggen. The chain will now expand to locations in California, Nevada and Arizona, as well as additional locations in cities it already serves.

Other California locations include Los Angeles, Redondo Beach, Culver City, San Pedro, Woodland Hills, Santa Monica, Torrance, Burbank and Thousand Oaks.

Haggen acquired the Albertsons stores after an agreement was reached that the chain would take over 146 stores as part of the divestment process brought about by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s review of the Albertsons and Safeway merger.

Haggen plans to expand Albertsons from 18 stores with 16 pharmacies to 164 stores with 106 pharmacies, and from 2,000 employees to more than 10,000 employees.

All current Albertsons and Safeway employees at the acquired stores have the opportunity to become employees of Haggen as the stores are transitioned to Haggen stores, according to the statement.

“We warmly welcome these new employees and stores into the Haggen family. The stores are well-run and very successful, thanks to the dedicated store teams,” said John Clougher, Haggen CEO. “We want to retain these existing teams while allowing our growing company to build on their past successes. We plan to adopt the best practices of our new stores to offer a superior shopping experience for our valued customers in all of our stores.”

The transaction is expected to close in early 2015, and Haggen will convert all the acquired Albertsons and Safeway stores to the Haggen brand in phases during the first half of 2015.