Sheetz, Ultimate Shine Car Wash coming to Heath
HEATH − Sheetz and Ultimate Shine Car Wash will join Dunkin donuts as the newcomers to Hebron Road in Heath, and more opportunities are available on the busy commercial strip for new business, Heath Mayor Mark Johns said.
The Heath Planning Commission approved site plans for Sheetz at 750 Hebron Road and Ultimate Shine at 733 Hebron Road at Tuesday night’s meeting. The Dunkin donuts development continues on the corner of Hebron Road and Radian Drive.
The Sheetz restaurant, gas station and retail store will replace two business – the small car dealership on the corner of Hebron Road and Oberlin Drive and the adjacent car wash that closed in June.
The Sheetz project has been in the planning stages for several months, but the size and terrain of the site complicated the 1.6-acre development.
Jared Lane, the city of Heath director of building and zoning, said, "From the original sketch plan, they had to completely redesign the site to accommodate for the storm sewer and also the grading issues there, so that set them back probably three months."
Mayor Mark Johns said the dropoff behind Hebron Road businesses makes planning difficult for properties on the east side of the road.
“I know it’s been a long road with numerous modifications,” Johns told the design engineer for the Sheetz project. “This whole side of 79 has its challenges as it relates to redevelopment. I appreciate you guys staying in the game, sticking with the community and making this work. We’re glad you’re here.”
The 4,900 square foot Sheetz building will be divided equally between restaurant space and retail space. The Sheetz development that opened in March on North 21st Street in Newark included a 6,077 square foot building on a 1.6-acre site.
Braydon Putnam, of V3 Companies design engineers, represented Sheetz at the meeting. He said the company plans to have a March 1 groundbreaking and open in late 2023.
Putnam acknowledged it was a complicated planning process because of the unique site.
“Just to make the underground storm sewer work, we had to raise the whole site a foot or two just to get cover for everything,” Putnam said. “There were a lot of grading challenges, but we made it work. Drainage was a concern to that residential house on the back of the lot.”
The planning commission approved variances for landscaping, signage and parking.
Sheetz will employ 35 to 40 employees. The Newark store hired 45 to 50 employees when it opened.
The mayor said Sheetz will be the only gas station on the east side of Hebron Road between the Speedway station at O’Neill Drive in Hebron and Ohio 16 in Newark, a distance of almost eight miles.
“There’s no doubt you guys are going to be busy,” Johns said. “I have a feeling when this is open, high school kids leaving school to go home will probably be making stops.”
Ultimate Shine Car Wash
Across the street from the Sheetz development will be Ultimate Shine Car Wash, at 733 Hebron Road, next to the Turkey Hill gas station/conveniencce store, on the vacant property of the former Knights Inn hotel. The development site has been fenced off for several months.
Brent Myers, senior development manager for site developer Casto, said it still plans to develop the site's other two parcels, totaling 2.3 acres. Casto officials said following the Knights Inn demolition it hoped for a restaurant and retail development.
“We’re continuing to actively market it and in discussions with some folks," Myers said. "We're still trying to figure out what the development plan looks like for the rest of the site.”
Jonathan Yates, director of real estate for Ultimate Shine, said construction would begin either this month or very early December on the 6,058-square foot car wash building, depending on approval of building and zoning permits. Construction at the 1.4-acre site will take about four to five months, but winter weather could extend that timeline, he said.
Yates said the Heath location is a good fit for Ultimate Shine, which will provide a three-lane car wash with a tunnel length of 150 feet, which he said is longer than any others in the Newark-Heath area.
“We felt like there’s a lot of traffic there and redevelopment is happening," Yates said. "It checks a lot of the economic boxes.”
Yates said The Ultimate Shine developments, on average, are about a $5 million investment, with a total of 15 employees and two to four working at any given time.
Heath will be one of many Ohio locations for the company that has 17 locations in Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia.
Over the next 18-24 months, Ultimate Shine plans to open 15 to 20 locations in Ohio, the first in Chillicothe before Christmas, Yates said. Another will open in Zanesville next year.
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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Sheetz gas, Ultimate Shine Car Wash coming to Heath
