By Liz Oakes
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A demolition bucket rests Monday at Brentwood Plaza in Finneytown. Part of the plaza (left) will be razed to make way for a long-awaited anchor store, a Kroger. (Craig Ruttle photo)

FINNEYTOWN - Springfield Township officials' hope of reviving Winton Road - part of an 8-year-old vision to remake this suburb - are expected to get a $10 million boost today with the announcement that a state-of-the-art Kroger will fill a long-vacant storefront at Brentwood Plaza.

Township officials and Brentwood Plaza's owner, New Plan Excel Realty Trust, based in New York, are expected to announce Kroger's move from its location a block away into a new 69,133-square-foot building that will be 35 percent larger and have a freestanding gas station.

The renovation, expected to be completed by the end of the year, includes a new facade and parking lot, as well as new lighting and landscaping.

Demolition of an empty space in the shopping center that most recently housed Cheap Beds and Furniture began on Tuesday.

The township plans to sell the 1-acre lot at the edge of the plaza, where its firehouse and service department are squeezed, to New Plan. New Plan officials say they want to put more shops on the site. The township is building a new fire station on Winton Road and has plans for relocating the service department next year.

Brentwood Plaza shoppers and other township residents say they hope the shot in the arm isn't really a Band-Aid.

Township Trustee Tom Bryan says the move of Kroger into Brentwood is a step toward revitalizing the Winton Road area, where business vacancies have drawn resident complaints.

"Winton Road traverses nearly through the center of the township and nearly from the top to the bottom of the township. It's a major artery," Bryan said. "People are seeing it and forming their impression of Springfield Township as they go through. The more attractive it is the more likely people will want to stop and do business."

Of the $12.3 million in bonds it issued in 2002, the township has set aside $1.3 million for a "streetscape" that would include new streetlights, sidewalks and benches.

The plan is part of Winton Road improvements by Hamilton County once the state approves funding for the project, possibly in 2005.

The streetscape plan still must come before township trustees for final approval, likely in February, said Administrator Michael Hinnenkamp.

"We still want to maintain the homey-ness of it, rather than turning it into a Colerain Avenue," Bryan said.

"Right now we're looking at improving the traffic flow, as well as improving the appearance of the whole corridor."

But some residents are more concerned about eyesores than road improvements.

"We're already looking at the possibility of moving out of Finneytown. ... I just see the area going down and down and down," said Tami Meyer, 39.

Neighbors say they'd like to see more sit-down restaurants, rather than discounters, which have been among Brentwood Plaza's recent tenants.

"I really don't want to see another dollar store in here. We've already got a couple of them. How many more do we need?" said Tony Trotta, 54, who's lived in Finneytown for 27 years.

"I'd rather see this shopping center get a little more livelier, a little more upscale."

Residents point to bustling businesses such as Applebee's restaurant at Winton and Hempstead, on the edge of Brentwood Plaza.

"I think that's been a really good draw for Finneytown. But you can't have an Applebee's and think Applebee's is going to fix the whole corridor," Meyer said. "I think (the township) has overlooked a lot of things."

Rather than working on roads, she said, officials should worry about empty buildings, such as the one across from Applebee's that about five years ago housed a United Dairy Farmers that her family could walk to.

"What are they going to do with all these abandoned buildings?" said Meyer, who has lived in Finneytown for 10 years.

Other residents echoed her concern, wondering what will happen to the current Kroger store, one block north, which moved there in the mid-1980s from Brentwood Plaza.

Kroger officials say they will look for another tenant.

If not, "then I guess we're trading off one empty space for another," Trotta said.

Township officials say they're working on the problems and have outlined goals in a "vision plan" they began working on in 1996.

"We're not going to commercialize the whole area, but we're certainly trying to revitalize it," trustee Bryan said.

"We've done that through land-use planning, and now we're doing it through cooperation with businesses to effect some visible, noticeable, attractive changes."

E-mail loakes@enquirer.com