Uptown Maumee Shoppers May Soon Need New Grocer As The Pharm Sells Store
BY NANCY GAGNET — MIRROR REPORTER
When it was announced earlier this month that Rite Aid intends to purchase The Pharm and discontinue selling grocery items, many in Maumee were left wondering where they would buy milk and bread.
“I’m going to miss that. It’s so easy to get in and out,” said Nancy Geitgey, who makes regular stops to buy groceries at The Pharm at Golden Gate Plaza.
“I drive down the trail on my way home from work and I stop here all the time,” she said.
Spartan Stores, Inc., of Grand Rapids, Mich., is actively negotiating plans to sell The Pharm to Rite Aid; however, those plans have not been finalized due to a 60-day due diligence period in which the buyer considers the option to purchase.
If a deal is reached, Rite Aid would continue the drugstore portion of the business but discontinue the grocery portion.
Sharon Kowalski of Maumee makes three or four stops each week at The Pharm at Golden Gate for staple grocery items.
“It will be a big inconvenience, but I’ll probably go to The Andersons more,” she said.
“My aunt who lives at Waterside comes here every week to buy her groceries and it will be a big inconvenience for her,” she said. “I’d like to see Maumee have another store to buy groceries.”
Mayor Tim Wagener agrees.
“Our concern was to keep a grocery retail in uptown Maumee, but as a city we can’t control private property,” the mayor said.
The Golden Gate Plaza is owned by Trail Investors and leased by Spartan Stores, Inc., which purchased Seaway Food Town in 2000 for $179 million. The purchase included 47 grocery stores and 26 Pharm stores including Food Town and The Pharm at Golden Gate Plaza.
Several Food Town locations were closed in 2003 including the one at Golden Gate Plaza; however, The Pharm remained open.
According to the mayor, Spartan Stores chose to keep the former Food Town site vacant to avoid competition for The Pharm.
“They wouldn’t sublease the location or give it back to the landlord. They continued to pay rent on the empty space so that no stores would occupy the space and compete with The Pharm,” he said.
“There’s no love lost between Spartan Foods and myself,” he said. “They’ve pretty much destroyed the grocery and drug store business in the region and destroyed a lot of lives in the process.”
According to Mark Zyndorf, managing partner of Trail Investors, the owners intended to redevelop the property for some time but had not been able to.
“For the last five years we have tried to redevelop it – we own it but we don’t control the premises,” he said.
Zyndorf said that if Rite Aid takes over The Pharm, preliminary construction, which could take place in September, would include demolishing the site that housed Food Town and positioning a new Rite Aid store at that location.
At that time, The Pharm would either be “utilized or taken down.”
Zyndorf said that those renovation plans would then spark façade upgrades to the east side of the plaza, located on the other side of Gibbs Street.
“So basically it will look brand new,” he said. “We’re hoping to redevelop the whole center.”
City administrator John Jezak reiterated the fact that although plans have not been finalized for Golden Gate Plaza, something would likely happen at that location.
“Although the actual deal remains unsettled, in all likelihood the possibility exists that the building would eventually be demolished and a new Rite Aid would be built,” he said.
Plans for The Pharm located at Parkway Plaza in Maumee remain unclear.
Monclova Township Trustee Speaks On JEDZ And Its Benefits At Maumee Chamber Meeting
BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
Diners at Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Abuelo’s and Loma Linda; golfers at Brandywine Country Club and Fallen Timbers Fairways; and air travelers from around the world may not be aware of it, but they’re within a 22-mile radius of Monclova Township, explained Chuck Hoecherl, one of three trustees in the township of 12,000 people.
Hoecherl addressed the Maumee Chamber of Commerce members gathered at Brandywine County Club on April 8 with information about the township and its relationship with Maumee.
A joint economic development zone with Maumee and Toledo is an economic development tool that in 2007 generated over $1 million in revenues split equally among the three communities.
Currently there are over 500 acres of commercially zoned land in the JEDZ available for development, he said. Some 200 acres of this land is owned by the city of Toledo and is generating interest from businesses and developers. Currently under way are plans for a Kroger store and a Mercy Health Partners medical facility in the township.
“When the JEDZ expands, even though it is outside of Maumee, Maumee benefits,” Hoecherl said.
Maumee city administrator John Jezak shared the latest city developments with chamber members during the lunch.
In addition to announcing that Rite Aid will purchase The Pharm stores at Golden Gate Plaza and Parkway Plaza (see related article), Jezak told chamber members about Maumee Authority Stamping, an employee-owned company that recently signed a purchase agreement for Ford’s former Illinois Avenue stamping facility. The deal is expected to be closed by June 17.
Jezak also mentioned several other changes in Maumee:
• Mezzmerize, a 300-seat Mediterranean restaurant at the corner of Holland Road and Dussel Drive, opened last week.
• J & M Designs, a design graphics firm, recently purchased a building at 128 W. Wayne St.
• Red Robin is opening Monday, April 21 at The Shops at Fallen Timbers.
• The Maumee board of education office, 2345 S. Detroit Ave., will be auctioned on Thursday, May 1 at 11:00 a.m.
• Bids for the historic Plantation Inn are due May 1.
• The city, Maumee Uptown Business Association, chamber and Realtors were to meet for a brainstorming session last Friday to explore alternative ways to promote Uptown Maumee, building upon the high level of professional design services currently in the area.
The next Maumee Chamber of Commerce luncheon will be held on Tuesday, May 13 at noon at Brandywine Country Club.