Kroger to Build Marketplace store in Amelia

AMELIA – Kroger plans to build a 123,000-square-foot Marketplace store on Ohio Pike.

The store will employ about 400 people, both full-time and part-time, Lisa Ammons, a real estate manager with Kroger, told Pierce Township officials Wednesday, April 27.

Once the new store is built, Kroger will close two existing stores in the area, one at Ohio Pike and Bach-Buxton Road in Batavia Township and the other at Ohio Pike and Ohio 132 in Pierce Township, Ammons said.

The two stores that will close are about 56,000 square feet each.

The 14-acre site to be occupied by the new store is partly in Amelia and partly in Pierce Township. There also will be about six acres occupied by other retail stores.

The site is on the south side of Ohio Pike near Amelia-Olive Branch Road.

Most of the site is owned by Select Strategies Realty of Milford. Pierce Township owns about nine acres of the site.

Mike Paolucci of Select Strategies told Pierce Township officials rezoning will be sought for a portion of the site in Pierce Township now zoned residential. The rest of the site is zoned business.

Ammons said the Kroger store will be open 24 hours a day and include a fuel center, pharmacy and bank.

It will be similar to a Marketplace store in Mt. Orab, she said.

Construction is expected to begin by fall.

“We’d like to see this happen,” Pierce Township Trustee Gregg Conrad said.

Pierce Township officials discussed using a portion of their property as a recreation area, with a pond tied into Kroger’s drainage system.

Township Administrator David Elmer said he would look into Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to pay for the recreation area.