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Youngstown has given up trying to find a grocery store for the former Bottom Dollar on Glenwood Avenue
YOUNGSTOWN
Unable to attract interest from a company to open a grocery store at the former Bottom Dollar supermarket on Glenwood Avenue, the city has agreed to a short-term lease of the property with a gourmet candy business.
The city also is in preliminary negotiations with a business to provide access to health care at that South Side location, said T. Sharon Woodberry, director of community planning and economic development. She declined to disclose the company.
“It’s very promising, but we haven’t finalized anything,” she said.
The goal for the city since Bottom Dollar closed in January 2015, after the chain was sold to ALDI Inc., was to replace it with another grocery store.
“We did not get interest from anyone who wanted to build a grocery store at that location,” Woodberry said. “We got some leads with grocery stores that have an urban presence. But ultimately, it didn’t result in a proposal.”
The city sought proposals for the location twice – coming up empty the first time and getting two proposals last month.
One proposal came from Valley Christian Church of Market Street in Boardman, which wanted the city to donate the property.
The other came from Big Dipper Food Co. Inc. of Superior Street in Youngstown. Big Dipper supplies handmade, gourmet peanut, almond, cashew and pecan brittle. It wants to use the location to store and ship inventory.
The city’s board of control will meet today to vote on a contract through the end of August with Big Dipper. The deal doesn’t call for the company to pay any money to the city, Woodberry said.
Big Dipper is looking for a permanent location for storing and shipping its food items, Woodberry said, and the city is looking for a place for the company to do that.
If the health care business opts not to relocate to the former Bottom Dollar location, Big Dipper would take over the spot, Woodberry said.
It hasn’t been determined whether either proposal would be a lease or a sale, but the city prefers not to own the property, she said.