Boardman retail development rebounds; officials study new impact fees

By Ashley Luthern

aluthern@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

As retailers in the township continue to grow, officials are still researching impact fees to help pay for local services used by businesses.

In one block of South Avenue, shoppers will soon have their choice of three grocery stores, with another just a few miles south.

Walmart will add 20,000 square feet to enhance its food selection, bringing the building closer to Doral Drive which turns into Tiffany Boulevard, said Zoning Inspector Anna Mamone.

The expansion should be completed in January 2012, according to zoning documents.

Walmart is next to Giant Eagle and across from the site of a new 17,000 square-foot Aldi grocery store at 6600 South Ave.

Aldi tentatively is slated to open in late summer, said Kevin McClure, director of real estate for Aldi, Inc.

“It’s currently still under construction. We’re moving along,” McClure said. “...We wanted to build our brand new prototype store, plus we have access to a traffic light.”

Shoppers will be able to turn onto Cedar Way, which has a traffic light at its intersection with South Avenue, and then turn into the Aldi parking lot, behind KFC.

Rulli Brothers, which opened in March 2009, is less than two miles south from the Giant Eagle-Aldi-Walmart block.

That activity is only part of new development in the township.

“We’ve had an upward trend in inquires” of commercially zoned properties and building permits, Mamone said.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com