Thursday, February 17, 2000
Site prepared for Silverton CVS
Other stores may follow
BY ALLEN HOWARD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SILVERTON — The site of the historic Grafton's Restaurant is being smoothed over in preparation for a CVS superstore.
The restaurant, which operated for 68 years, was torn down in January after its equipment was sold at auction.
Mayor Art Hackett said he expects the CVS to be built by mid-year.
“They are busy leveling off the area and we expect construction to start soon,” Mr. Hackett said.
The site at Montgomery and Plainfield roads in the northwest corner of a parking lot surrounds the Silverton Municipal Building.
The intersection is the center of the business district, City Service Manager Paul Steman said.
“This is sort of the living room of our business district. What is done here has a great impact on the entire district,” Mr. Steman said.
The suburb of 5,000 residents has had problems attracting business since experiencing critical financial problems that began in 1996.
The city was placed under a fiscal watch in 1997 by the Ohio Auditor's Office when it could not make its payroll and pay other bills.
The watch was lifted last year after Silverton shaved its budget and ended with a surplus at the end of fiscal year 1999.
“We have to be careful about our expenditures and make sure we don't end up in the same situation,” Mr. Hackett said.
The mayor said Silverton is attracting several other businesses, but he would not give any names.
Similar plans for a superstore by the Rite Aid Corp. were scrapped last year.
Rite Aid had planned a $2.5 million store and pharmacy at the northwest corner of Montgomery and Plainfield roads, but it abandoned those plans when the corporate office cut back on expansion.
Scrapping the superstore plans dealt a big blow to Silverton, Mr. Steman said.
“Our hopes were shattered when those plans went belly-up,” he said. “We don't have complete details on the CVS store, but we have changed the zoning to meet requirements. Demolition of the restaurant has taken place and work is going ahead. I don't think this will go belly-up.”
CVS officials could not be reached Wednesday.
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