Timetable for construction of new Meijers store in Glen Carbon changes. Here’s why
The Village of Glen Carbon recently gave Meijer another year to start construction of its grocery store in the Orchard Town Center development.
The clock started ticking last October when the board approved the supercenter’s final site plans, giving them 12 months to start construction.
That didn’t happen, and Meijer requested an extension.
Village documents contain a copy of an Aug. 21 email from Keri Williams, a civil engineer working on the Meijer project, asking for more time.
A Sept. 5 memo from Glen Carbon’s Director of Community Development Erika Heil to the Village Board included Meijer’s request.
“As the building will still be completed, but after the deadline, they have requested a one-year extension. They are not requesting any changes to the site plan other than a time extension. This would allow them to build the building concurrently with the site in O’Fallon,” the memo stated.
The board approved a 12-month extension at its Sept. 12 meeting.
Village Board Administrator Jamie Bowden said in a Sept. 27 phone interview that expiration of such an approval doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen.
Had the approval expired, he said that, theoretically, Meijer would need to reapply for approval.
Bowden also said that Meijer is currently conducting a mine investigation of the property, which the grocery store chain now officially owns.
Tim Lowe, senior vice president of leasing and development for The Staenberg Group, spoke at the Sept. 26 Village Board meeting and reminded the Board that Meijer wanted to wait to start construction until they had two stores in the market and open them at around the same time.
The City of O’Fallon approved the development of a Meijer store in July.
Lowe said at the meeting that Meijer was at the Glen Carbon site conducting some “testing work.” He added that Meijer will hopefully provide an update soon and have an opening in the next couple of years.
In a separate phone interview, Lowe said that Meijer is drilling holes throughout the property to better understand the mining map of the area but was unable to provide more detailed information.
I’ve asked Meijer’s media relations department for more information about this via email.
I received a reply from Erin Cataldo, an external communications manager, stating that she was reaching out to the real estate team to see if they can share more information.
In addition to this latest development with Meijer, Lowe provided updates about the first phase of the development at Orchard Town Center, which is nearly complete.
This phase consisted of traffic improvements on the north end of the development site and the progress of Meijer as the anchor, plus four outlots of the new shopping center.
These four outlots are the sites for Chick-fil-A, which opened earlier this year, Olive Garden, Club Car Wash and Plaza Tire.
Lowe said that Olive Garden is looking at a late 2023/early 2024 opening. Plaza Tire is slated to open this fall, and Club Car Wash (formerly Tidal Wave Express Car Wash) will likely start construction in 2024.
