Saturday, May 29, 1999
Shoppers will get expanded Kroger in '00
Store closing for rebuilding
BY LISA BIANK FASIG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Mount Washington residents soon will have to go motoring to go Krogering.
The Kroger Co. Monday night will close its Mount Washington store to make way for a larger location at the same site on Beechmont Avenue. Loyal shoppers will be rewarded in 10 months to a year with an updated store with more services.
“As soon as we can, we will be tearing it down and building anew,” Steve Jagers, spokesman for Cincinnati-Dayton area stores, said. “We have been looking at Mount Washington for years, and we always wanted to remodel or improve our existing store and could never figure out how to do that.”
The existing store, at 28,000 square feet, is too small for the market, he said. The Hyde Park store, by contrast, is closer to 70,000 square feet. The new store will be about 59,000 square feet.
Kroger had to acquire three surrounding properties to make enough room for the project: a florist, a neighborhood bar and a United Dairy Farmers.
“I wouldn't say it's a hardship, but it's not a first choice. We'll be OK,” said Dawn Conlon, whose Covent Garden Florist is in one of the acquired properties. “I think (Kroger) did everything they could to help us.”
Covent Garden will close early next week and is scheduled to reopen at the intersection of Salem and Sutton in Mount Washington in the first week of July.
Mark Celsor, a member of the Mount Washington Community Council, said residents had been petitioning for a new store for years. He surmises that the scheduled fall opening of Bigg's, at the developing Skytop Plaza down the road, might have expedited the redevelopment.
“It was old and dingy and didn't have the selection,”
Mr. Celsor said of Kroger. “I shop there, but I'll shop there more” when it's rebuilt.
The new store is expected to include many features not at the 22-year-old location. That includes a pharmacy with a walk-up window, a seafood shop, expanded deli and bakery, a new floral department, book shop and one-hour photo.
Mr. Celsor said Kroger has of fered to operate a pharmacy from a trailer positioned behind the nearby Fifth Third bank branch during construction. A shuttle also is being talked about, to carry shoppers to the Anderson Township store.
The Mount Washington store will close at 9 p.m. Monday. Workers will relocate to other Kroger stores until it reopens. The store will employ roughly 225.
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