AMELIA — Three months after the Kroger Marketplace store in Pierce Township and Amelia opened construction on a retail building next to it has begun.
Tenants in the 22,500-square-foot building, expected to be completed by June, will include Petco, Hibbett Sports, GNC and Verizon Wireless, David Noell, chief operating officer of JDL Warm Construction, said in an email.
Petco will be the biggest store, according to a site plan provided by Select Strategies Realty, which owns the property.
Additional development is underway to add an additional 32,000 square feet of retail space to the Pierce Town Center, which is currently anchored by the Kroger Marketplace.
Michael Paolucci, president of Select Strategies Realty, said his firm owns 14 parcels of land on the Kroger lot.
When asked whether the town center would have taken shape the way it has without Kroger Paolucci delivered a clear answer.
“No,” he said.
“We were looking at other concepts, but Kroger was the one we really wanted to have.”
Purchasing property in the center, and handling all the zoning and jurisdictional road blocks that came along with it, took about eight years.
Getting Kroger to close two area locations and build its marketplace helped attract other businesses, something that was proving difficult because of “a stereotype out there” about Amelia, Paolucci said.
“People wouldn’t even talk to us (before Kroger),” he said, even though the intersection of state Route 125 and Amelia-Olive Branch Road in front of the store is the busiest intersection in Clermont County outside of the Interstate 275 interchange.
“It’s an old part of Cincinnati. It’s not new and sparkly like West Chester, so people don’t think of it as being a community with nice neighborhoods, but they’re there,” he said.
“Once sales for this Kroger Marketplace are publicized more other people (in the retail world) will come in and re-examine Amelia.”
Mike Otto, an Amelia resident, said the new Kroger is “a good place to shop,” but he isn’t looking forward to more construction.
“This area is completely overdeveloped. We don’t need all this,” Otto said.
Otto hasn’t noticed problems with traffic because of the new store, but said he avoids the main road “at all costs.”
“I don’t know if it’s had an impact (on the community). It’s just a bigger Kroger,” he said.
El Jinete, a Mexican restaurant with locations in Fairfax and near Interstate 275 on Montgomery Road, put a “coming soon” sign in the parking lot.
In addition, “Wendy’s is talking to us about (another parcel),” Paolucci said.
The other building, which construction crews haven’t started yet, has 50 to 60 percent of its space in lease negotiations with future tenants, he said.
Some residents don’t think the announced businesses are as encouraging as Paloucci does, citing the close proximity of identical area businesses.
There is a Verizon store 1 mile down the road from its future location in the town center.
There also is a Wendy’s 1 mile toward I-275 and another one 2 miles on the way to Bethel.
Another Mexican restaurant, Los Cabos Mexican Grill, sets up shop 1 mile toward I-275 from El Jinete’s future location.
“It would be nice to see something different (food-wise), especially after the Great Scott Diner closed,” said Patty Hayslip, a Bethel resident
“But the pet store is exciting. I have to go out to Eastgate for that now.”
Phyllis Cunningham, a Tate Township resident, pointed down the road each direction when asked about the choice of businesses.
“There’s a Wendy’s right over there and right over here,” she said.
Paolucci said if a deal is struck with Wendy’s, those two stores will be closed when a new facility is built in the town center.
“We are taking things that are out there and making it better,” he said.
“I don’t want to criticize those people, but sometimes people don’t like change and this presents a giant change. This is a game changer for Amelia.”
Residents voiced similar concerns before Kroger opened, Paolucci said.
“It’s the nature of the beast,” he said
“Before this opened we kept hearing, ‘We love our old, small Kroger.’ We don’t hear that anymore.”
