Kroger moving ahead with new Ohio State/Weinland Park/Short North area store

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Business First - by Dan Eaton

Date: Friday, October 29, 2010, 2:05pm EDT

Being of a Halloween season mindset, I quote Dr. Frankenstein: “It’s alive!”

Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. is moving forward with a long-planned project to build a new store on its site at the corner of High Street and Seventh Avenue, just south of Ohio State University.

It should be anything but horrific to Ohio State University students and Weinland Park residents.

Kroger spokeswoman Beth Wilkin said protective fencing will go up next week and construction is expected to begin soon on the 56,000-square-foot store, with an opening expected by the middle of 2011.

The existing 32,000-square-foot store will remain open while the new store is built at the southwest corner of the site, abutting High Street with its entrance facing north. The current store is set back on the site, with an west-facing entrance and its parking lot fronting High Street.

Wilkin could not provide a cost estimate, but said the plans are the same that were proposed more than two years ago. A combination of internal delays and zoning delays had pushed back the start of the project, she said.

The project also includes retail space connected to the store and a separate, almost 9,000-square-foot building to be at the corner of High Street and Seventh.

The street-front buildings will mask the parking on the interior of the site, a goal the University Area Commission hoped to accomplish, helping to create a continuous streetscape along High Street.