Mayor Grove: Meijer store is ahead of schedule, could open sooner

ALLIANCE ‒ The construction of a new Meijer store is ahead of schedule, Mayor Andy Grove said Monday night.

Grove told City Council that the 160,000-square-foot store at 2500 W. State St., the site of the former Carnation City Mall, is progressing well.

"The store continues to be on track for an early summer opening in 2024," said Meijer spokeswoman Erin Cataldo. "We will announce the specific opening date approximately six weeks in advance."

Initially, the store was expected to be ready until mid to late 2024.

"The building shell is up and the parking lot is near completion," Grove told City Council.

The mall − which closed in 2022 − was demolished. The Meijer store will anchor a new retail plaza on the property.

That wasn't the only positive news on the economic development front.

Grove also said IML Containers, a French-based packaging manufacturer, recently broke ground on a new facility in the city's industrial park. The company initially will hire 30 employees, city planners said, and site work on the property has started.

"That leaves us with one plot of land left in the industrial park, and we have a company interested in it," he said after the meeting.

Grove didn't divulge the name of the interested company, because they haven't made a decision, but the firm is involved in engineering, the mayor said.

In other business, council passed legislation that allows the city to apply for an Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services grant to purchase body camera equipment for the police department.

Reach Benjamin Duer at 330-580-8567 or ben.duer@cantonrep.com. On X (formerly Twitter): @bduerREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Alliance Mayor Andy Grove said Meijer, IML Containers making progress