43
Dick’s to have new location in Boardman
BOARDMAN
A $1.7 million addition to a shopping plaza will be the new home of Dick’s Sporting Goods.
The store will be located at the former site of England Custom Furniture, 550 Boardman-Poland Road. The plaza is owned by V&V 224 Limited, of Youngstown, and the commercial project will add 26,250 square feet to the building, according to records in the township zoning office.
V&V 224 Limited has retained B&B Contractors.
A Dick’s Sporting Goods store already is open at 1280 Doral Drive off South Avenue. A representative in the Dick’s Sporting Goods corporate office would say only that information about new stores generally isn’t released until a week or a few days before grand opening.
The move has been the subject of speculation for a while. In April, Bill Kutlick, president of Kutlick Realty LLC, said that his company had a lease signed with Dick’s Sporting Goods for the store to move to a new location.
The planned location for Dick’s Sporting Goods is across from The Shops at Boardman Park, which has welcomed six new tenants in the last year, said Celeste Lisko, marketing director for Handel Investments, which manages The Shops at Boardman Park.
Lisko said store tenants at The Shops plaza are excited about Dick’s Sporting Good moving across the street.
“If The Shops is successful, it is good for Boardman,” she said. “It reinforces the confidence level for other retailers who want to come in and be there.”
Within the past year, Five Below, Scott Trade, ULTA, hhgregg, Salsitas Mexican Restaurant and Quaker Steak & Lube opened in The Shops at Boardman Park. The only vacancy is the space attached to Quaker Steak & Lube.
“I think the hub of Boardman has kind of shifted this direction,” Lisko said.
The Shops will have a grand reopening Sept. 17.
Township Administrator Jason Loree said being a township helps retail growth.
“One of the things that I get is people asking for tax abatements for things like income tax, and quite frankly, we just don’t have that,” Loree said. “I know people [understand] that they have to pay property tax, but when you compare that to an income and sales tax, there’s a savings for the business.”
Townships cannot levy an income or sales tax under Ohio law. Customers in Boardman still pay state and Mahoning county sales taxes, as well as a separate sales tax for the Western Reserve Transit Authority.
Loree said the business growth is a testament to Boardman’s past success as a retail stronghold.
“I think the investors out there know that this is a hub of commercial activity, and even in this economy, people still need things, and people are coming to Boardman to get those things,” he said.