The market isn’t even open yet. But for the small crowd of Imperial Beach residents who gathered Thursday morning at a shopping center a few blocks from the city’s troubled shoreline, just the arrival of a sign over an empty storefront was cause for celebration.

“When people come together, we can … make something really special happen,” said resident Shannon Ratliff to the crowd of roughly two dozen onlookers who assembled in a parking lot near Sixth Street and Palm Avenue to watch workers on an orange construction lift hoist letters and a store logo into place above a pair of sliding glass doors. “This is a really big deal.”

The sign at the center of attention Thursday featured a simple graphic of a sun and ocean wave above the words “Suncoast Market Co-op.”

It was that word “market” o

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