CINCINNATI Kroger hints it'll go if city kills deck plan

A move would mean free parking and no city taxes for employees.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- The Kroger Co. says it has found a place outside the city where it can move its headquarters if city council votes against a proposed taxpayer-financed parking garage.
Kroger, the nation's largest grocery chain, employs about 1,200 workers at its headquarters downtown.
The company estimates that those employees pay more than $2.5 million in city earnings taxes and spend money at downtown businesses.
A move would mean free parking and no city taxes, which would amount to a $1,100 raise for each employee now working downtown, said Joe Pichler, Kroger's chairman.
Pichler said the 120-year-old company, 18th on the Fortune 500 list, would prefer to keep its headquarters downtown.
"We don't want to be the folks to pull the plug on a great city, but we're losing parking," Pichler said.
City's vote
Council agreed in principle in June to build an estimated $12 million to $15 million parking garage with 850 to 1,000 spaces near Kroger's headquarters.
A vote on specific terms is set for Sept. 10, and Kroger is worried that support is waning.
Kroger leases 808 parking spaces at 13 lots downtown. About 355 of those spaces could be eliminated within two years because of private development and a proposed school. Kroger would lease 850 spaces at the new parking garage for about $510,000 a year.