Construction begins at Menards store on Elm Road in Bazetta

Staff report

BAZETTA

Menards, a Wisconsin-based home-improvement company with 280 stores in the north-central United States, has started to build its newest location on Elm Road next to the state Route 5 bypass.

At 247,956 square feet, the new store will be large — the company’s largest format, said Jeff Abbott, spokesman for Menard Inc.

The construction cost is estimated at $18 million, according to documents the company filed with the Trumbull County Building Inspection Department. That makes it one of the bigger projects right now in Trumbull County, said Mike Sliwinski, Trumbull County’s chief building official.

The Elm Road location, in the space formerly occupied by Walmart, is the easternmost location for a Menards store. The nearest one is in Massillon, but there are about 20 other locations in north-central and northwest Ohio.

The store will have “several great departments and a lumberyard with a covered warehouse and garden center,” Abbott said.

Menards is an Eau Claire, Wis.-based, family-owned company started in 1960. Its website lists its products as appliances, bath, building materials, doors, windows and millwork, electrical, flooring and rugs, grocery and pet, heating and cooling, home decor, kitchen, lighting and ceiling fans, maintenance, repair and operations, outdoors, paint, plumbing, home and patio, storage and organization and tools and hardware.

The company will be accepting job applications at the store once managers are in place later this year, Abbott said.

The general contractor is McConnell Excavating of Oberlin.