Dollar General coming to former Giant Eagle site

STAFF REPORT

CORNERSBURG — The former Giant Eagle store here is about to be turned into a Dollar General store.

Cocca Development of Boardman bought the Canfield Road property, and remodeling work will begin soon, said Lynn Davenport, company chief financial officer.

Records on file with the Mahoning County Auditor show that Cocca bought the site last week for $550,000 from MN Realty Co., an investment company that had owned it since 1978.

Giant Eagle, a Pittsburgh-based grocery store chain, closed the Cornersburg store last July. The company attributed the closing to financial reasons.

Davenport said Dollar General will use just over half of the former Giant Eagle store, which has 24,000 square feet. The rest of the building is being marketed to one or more tenants, he said.

“We’ve had a lot of interest. We’re talking to a number of people,” he said.

Cocca has built more than 100 Dollar General stores in several states. Cocca officials presented the Cornersburg site as a possible location, and Dollar General liked the area because of the population and other retailers nearby, Davenport said.

Dollar General is based in Tennessee and has 8,400 stores in 35 states.

The property sale was brokered by Edward J. Lewis, a real estate firm. Scott Lewis, company vice president, said MN Realty had fielded multiple sale proposals before choosing Cocca, including those from a number from banquet center operators. MN Realty is a partnership made up mostly of former area residents who have moved to other areas, he said.