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Plans announced for 3 new grocery stores
By Karl Henkel
YOUNGSTOWN
Boardman-based Horizon Management Inc. announced plans Friday for three new grocery stores, adding to the Valley’s recent boost in new grocers.
Horizon, owned by Elaine and John Kawecki and Henry Nemenz Jr., will open the supermarkets at plazas in McDonald, Struthers and Youngstown.
Plans for two Bottom Dollar Food grocery stores were formally announced for Youngstown — one in the Fosterville area and the other on East Midlothian Boulevard — earlier this month. Horizon is bringing three Save-a-Lots to the Mahoning Valley, beginning as early as next month.
“A lot of the neighborhoods in the Youngstown area have been severely underserved,” said Joe Bell, director of corporate communications for The Cafaro Co., which owns all three plazas. “A need has existed for quite a long time, so it’s not like anyone is getting oversaturated.”
The Struthers store, on Fifth Street, will open in late June, and the Youngstown store, at the corner of Belmont Avenue and Gypsy Lane, will open in mid-July. Both stores will fill spaces left by previously closed Sparkle Supermarkets.
Both will have approximately 24,000 square feet of grocery merchandise, with extra space for an extended selection of beer and wine.
The McDonald store, on Ohio Avenue, will open in June, and when it does, the McDonald Plaza will be at 100 percent capacity for the first time in five years.
“Retail developments were never at 100 percent capacity, and it got worse during the recession,” Bell said. “To have it fully leased is really kind of remarkable.”
It also will serve as the only grocery store in McDonald Village.
All three Save-A-Lot locations will have full-service meat departments and produce sections.
Horizon owns and operates 12 Save-A-Lot Supermarkets in Northeast Ohio, employing more than 200. Save-A-Lot operates nearly 1,200 stores nationwide. Nemenz Jr. did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment on potential Valley job growth.