By Patrick Baron
BLOOMINGTON – Thanks to the Bloomington City Council, two businesses are getting incentives that will allow them to move into new locations.
The city has revised its agreement with Kroger after the grocery pushed back its construction start date and slightly scaled back its financial commitment. Kroger will move from its location in the Landmark Plaza Shopping Center in Normal to a lot between College Avenue and Jumer Drive in Bloomington. The project will take about two years to complete, and Bloomington Economic Development Coordinator Austin Grammer explained that the incentive approaching $2.5 million over 10 years was necessary for Kroger’s move.
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“The incentive for Kroger is to rebate to them a portion of the sales tax that is created from the new store to help offset some extraordinary development costs that they are facing to get that store off the ground at that site,” said Grammer.
Grammer added that, due to Kroger’s national standards, the store had to move because the current location doesn’t allow for further expansion. Grammer provided a timeline for the project and explained that the new store should be up in a couple of years.
“They’re hoping to break ground on the new store middle-to-end of 2017, and then it takes about a year to build the store, so that means it could be open middle to the later half of 2018,” said Grammer.
Grammer also said the new store will have more space for the store itself, a private street, and a pickup station. The pickup station operates like a “to go” window; customers can go online and order the groceries that they want, and when they go to the store an hour later, their groceries will have been picked out by Kroger employees and waiting to be taken home.
The city also approved sales tax rebates for Sam Leman Auto Group. The auto dealership is building a new showroom and service shop to comply with Toyota’s requirements after Leman acquired the Bob Dennison Toyota and Ford dealerships. Leman gets a break on sales taxes up to $700,000 over 10 years.
Patrick Baron can be reached at [email protected].
