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City receives no proposals for former Bottom Dollar
YOUNGSTOWN
The city has received no proposals for purchase and reuse of the vacant former Bottom Dollar supermarket at 2649 Glenwood Ave.
The city requested proposals from those interested in buying the 18,000-square-foot, city-owned Glenwood Avenue building, with preference to be given to plans to reopen it as a grocery store.
The deadline for proposals was noon Monday, and there was no established minimum sale price.
“It’s disappointing, to say the least,” said T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s community planning and economic development director.
Woodberry said she was surprised not to have received any proposals after receiving inquiries about the building.
“We’ll extend this deadline, and put that back out for proposals,” she said. A news release late Monday afternoon said the deadline extension would be to noon March 2.
Woodberry also said she’ll make follow-up calls to those who inquired about the building.
The Glenwood store, built on 5.1 acres in 2011, has been unused since January 2015 and has no shelving, coolers, freezers, counters or cash registers.
Its plumbing, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, electrical, security and fire-alarm systems remain intact.
ALDI Inc., which acquired 66 Bottom Dollar stores, including this one, turned this store over to the city last year after removing the equipment from it.
The store’s prospects might have been better if its equipment had been left intact, Woodberry said based on numerous inquiries as to whether the store’s equipment still was in place.
“It’s still a very well-built new building,” offering flexibility in use of space, Woodberry said.
The Jan. 5 showing of the store drew only a real-estate broker; but four people showed up for the Jan. 19 showing, including a Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber representative, according to Sean McKinney, the city’s commissioner of buildings and grounds.
Woodberry said the Jan. 19 group included two grocers, one of whom made a follow-up appointment to re-examine the store.
Mayor John A. McNally has said he wants to see a full-service grocery store, not a convenience store, in this location.
The Fosterville neighborhood around the store remains a food desert without a grocery store, according to Sarah Lown, public finance manager at the Western Reserve Port Authority and a former economic development specialist for the city.
Average daily traffic counts near the store are 10,080 vehicles on Glenwood Avenue, 9,210 on Canfield Road and 5,360 on West Indianola Avenue.
“We believe that the traffic counts should have supported an interest,” Woodberry said.
The other former Bottom Dollars in Youngstown are the location at Mahoning Avenue and Meridian Road, which is owned by a private landlord; and the Midlothian Boulevard location, which is owned by ALDI Inc.