Hills Market is bringing a grocery store
Downtown in a move that some proponents say will fuel more residential
development in the area.
The grocery store is expected to open in the spring at 95 N. Grant Ave. as
part of the Neighborhood Launch housing development that, when finished, will
stretch from 4th Street to Grant Avenue along Gay and Long streets.
Hills Market Downtown will offer local and organic produce and prepared
foods, and it will feature a full-service deli, bakery, butcher shop, coffee
shop, indoor and outdoor eating area and free parking, spokeswoman Michelle
Chippas said.
“The grocery is in the perfect location to be a huge addition to Downtown,”
said Cleve Ricksecker, director of the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement
District, a group of Downtown business owners.
The store will be in an area that has a large concentration of college
students, Downtown workers, visitors and Downtown residents, he said.
“There is a growing residential market Downtown that is now large enough to
support a grocery store,” Ricksecker said. “The challenge is communicating to
retailers that there is still an unmet demand for retail services Downtown.
“A successful venture like this will likely spur other ventures. “
The grocery is to be housed in a building owned in partnership between Randy
Walker Real Estate Services and the Edwards Cos., which developed Neighborhood
Launch, Chippas said.
The Neighborhood Launch project has built or has started 73 housing units,
with a goal to build 300, Chippas said. The brownstone-style condos start at
$200,000, she said.
“Most people who come to the Neighborhood Launch open houses ask, ‘Where do
you shop for food?’ ” Chippas said. “We believe that the Hills Market Downtown
will be a successful complement to what is already offered at the North Market
and Kroger.”
Kroger operates a full-service grocery store in the Brewery District near
Downtown; Giant Eagle has stores in German Village and Victorian Village.
Hills Market Downtown will cover 12,000 square feet, about one-fifth the size
of Kroger’s Brewery District store, which has 65,000 square feet. The company’s
Hills Market on the Far North Side has 17,000 square feet, spokeswoman Jill
Moorhead said.
With a 100-year history in Columbus, Kroger welcomes the competition,
spokeswoman Amy McCormick said.
The new Hills Market is a signal that the revitalization of Downtown, on
both the commercial and residential fronts, continues to succeed, said Mike
Stevens, deputy development director for the city of Columbus.
“The Hills Market will be a strong addition that adds to the vibrancy of
Downtown,” he said.
Stevens said the city offered no incentive package to get the store to open
Downtown.
Nate Filler, president of the Ohio Grocers Association, said the development
indicates that “if you build it, they will come.”
“Not only does it offer consumers more choices and access to fresh fruits and
produce, it’ll be a crucial steppingstone to bring more people and businesses
Downtown,” Filler said.
The addition of a grocery store Downtown probably will result in lenders and
investors viewing the area more favorably, which will promote more development
because access to financing will improve, said Columbus developer Tom
Fortin.
Fortin helped attract local luxury brownie-maker Sugardaddy’s to the former
Modern Finance building at High and Gay streets, now being called the Cube.
Fortin also was one of the developers of Carlyles Watch, a condo development at
100 E. Gay St.
He said the grocery store could be the same growth catalyst for Downtown that
the North Market was for the Short North.
“When the North Market was redeveloped in 1993, it helped to propel the Short
North into the residential and commercial success that it is because it
attracted more people who wanted to live in the area because of the close access
to food and groceries,” he said.
“Urban living is attractive for its convenience, and having a grocer like the
Hills Market Downtown will enhance the demand for more residential living
Downtown.”
The market also could benefit from another residential and mixed-use
development planned four blocks to the northwest of the Neighborhood Launch
project.
Developer George Berardi is applying to the Downtown Commission to build a
five-story, 120,000-square-foot building at Spring and Neilston streets that
would have 102 apartments on the upper floors and four retail spaces at ground
level.
The $11.5 million Discovery District Commons also would include 71
underground parking spaces.
The site has a surface parking lot and two smaller buildings.
Dispatch reporter Marla Matzer Rose contributed to this report.
tturner@dispatch.com
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