Wasted Tax Dollars: the Highland Square Grocer Debacle
The lack of a grocery store in Highland Square has a remarkable parallel to the war in Iraq: both have seemingly no end. Weapons of Mass Destruction are non-existent, much like interested grocers. Most of all, the neighborhood residents, like the American people and the war, have complacently accepted the fact there is no grocery store.
Problems with the redevelopment are as follows:
- The original plan is too small.
- The adjacent retail space was built prematurely.
- There is an obvious conflict of interest with the Developer and the Acme grocery chain.
- Perhaps after 3 years without a grocery, the neighborhood is no longer in need of a traditional grocer.
The first city communication on the project dates back to late 2005. Neighborhood meetings were held as far back as 2000 by then councilman Dan Horrigan. The ‘05 plans called for a $1.5 million store to begin operating in the summer of 2007. However, the small space available in the desert like crater west of First Merit is only 6400 square feet.
When a grocer inks a deal with Albrecht, the store will be built. Why would the grocery be build to suit, but the adjacent spaces be constructed only to sit vacant? Do the hieroglyphics that adorn these buildings answer the question? Why not build on to this waste of space to make the grocery plot attractive to a larger grocer? That would push the grocery store to nearly 10,000 square feet, making it about as large as the Walgreen’s across the street.
Ironically Acme has completed a 12,000 square foot addition to their store in Kent. Steve Albrecht was quoted; the Kent store represents “the latest and best thinking on how customers want to shop a grocery store.” So rather than building a small neighborhood store, Acme completed a 12,000 square foot addition to a Kent store giving that community the latest and giving the residents of Highland Square a beautiful pile of rubble.
Forget Acme for a moment and consider other alternatives. Giant Eagle has built a smaller footprint store called Giant Eagle Express. The single location is outside Pittsburgh in Harmar, Pennsylvania. Another solution is to forget the traditional grocery store plan and continue to keep Akron beautiful by reconverting the land to green space to hold a weekly farmer’s market.
Clearly the city planning committee and Albrecht didn’t have a contingency plan or exit strategy from the start. After five years of planning, three years of little action, and the past 6 months of dead air from any economists, City Council, or Albrecht on the “good prospect,” I hope this commentary again poses the question- where’s our grocery store?
For more information, visit www.wheresourgrocerystore.com
I spent the better part of my college career working at the former Highland Square Star Mart (once Sparkle Mart), and the situation Highland Square residents have faced is a personal one. Besides the 20 or so friends who lost jobs in the process, there are a large number of local residents who relied on having the store within walking distance. It is a little known fact that the week after the Sparkle closed, the drug store across the street was #1 in the nation in milk and bread sales. We’re talking about sustenance and convenience. There are a large number of elderly and low-income residence who needed the Sparkle there day to day. J.T. Henretta, owner of the store, offered to reopen in a new retail space if the city was willing to build. Between Plusquellic and Albrecht, that will never happen. Albrecht has extinguished one more competitor. Decades ago, the Henrettas owned a number of Sparkle Marts in the downtown Akron area. Those are gone, and only one grocery store exists in the Downtown area (Dave’s on Exchange St).
Maybe this is a product of the move to the suburbs and urban sprawl, maybe it would have happened without city influence as a natural by-product of population shifts. Highland Square will change, and people who need to live near a grocery store will eventually move out of the area. The Square will change, life will go on.
I still feel like a piece of my past has needlessly been torn down, and that one more brick has been pulled out of the Jenga tower. How many can we pull out until Akron no longer a place people want to live…until it is simply a place to work because the highways lead there?
By Kman on July 3, 2008 at 3:52 pm