Council OKs South Side land purchase

November 18, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

City council gave the go-ahead to the board of control to buy 5.5 acres on the South Side that a development company wants for a grocery store.

Council members voted 7-0 Wednesday to allow the board to purchase the property in the Fosterville neighborhood for up to $15,000 from the city school district.

The sale should be finalized shortly with the city then selling the land to Primax Properties, a Charlotte, N.C., development company interested in building a 17,000-square-foot grocery store there, city officials said.

Also, council scheduled a public hearing for 2 p.m. Dec. 29 regarding a zone change for that area from institutional to general business. The zone change is needed for a supermarket to be built there.

The city’s planning commission recommended the zone change Tuesday.

The store would be bounded by West Princeton, Glenwood and West Indianola avenues and Utilis Street. The property is the location of the former Cleveland School and adjacent to Fosterville Park.

Several full-service grocery stores have closed in the area and nearby. There are convenience stores and other businesses that sell groceries but aren’t full- service supermarkets.

If the grocery-store deal goes through, the city would have a park built nearby, said T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s economic development director.

The city is looking at a location on Glenwood Avenue for the park, she said.

Any playground equipment in good shape at Fosterville Park would be moved to the new park, Woodberry said.

If there is a need for new equipment, Primax would purchase it, she added.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. is assisting the city in finding land that could be donated for a park in the neighborhood, Woodberry said.

City officials have a confidentiality agreement with Primax about the name of the proposed grocery store, and Primax hasn’t returned calls by The Vindicator to comment.

But Food Lion, a grocery store chain with more than 1,200 locations in 11 states, is one of the Primax’s major retail clients.