A half-dozen excavators, scrapers, dump trucks, bulldozers, and loaders move dirt and debris and knock down trees late Friday afternoon on the north side of the planned Kroger Marketplace shopping center in central Oak Ridge. The heavy equipment pictured above is working near Raleigh Road and the former Robin Lane.
An official groundbreaking for the new Kroger Marketplace shopping center hasn’t been announced yet, but a half-dozen bulldozers, dump trucks, excavators, loaders, and scrapers were moving dirt and debris and knocking down trees late Friday afternoon on the north side of the 25-acre site in central Oak Ridge.
The heavy equipment was working near Raleigh Road and the former Robin Lane, just southwest of Grove Center.
Oak Ridge Today has requested more information from a Kroger spokesman in Atlanta and will provide additional details as they become available.
An excavator knocks down a tree Friday afternoon at the 25-acre site of the new Kroger Marketplace shopping center in central Oak Ridge.
Last week, sales agent Rhodes Seeger of Blanchard and Calhoun Commercial in Augusta, Ga., which is helping with the $30 million project’s leasing and outparcel sales, said Kroger, which owns the site and is developing it, could start construction soon.
“Our understanding is they should start any day,” Seeger said.
Once it starts, Seeger said, construction could last about one year. Officials have previously said the new shopping center on the northeast side of the intersection of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue could open next year.
Seeger said Blanchard and Calhoun Commercial is talking to many potential tenants, including those interested in leasing small shop space at the shopping center or interested in outparcels.
“We’re excited about getting it going,” Seeger said.
The former Super 8 motel that is expected to be demolished to make way for a new Kroger Marketplace shopping center at Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue.
Announced in September, the new shopping center is expected to be anchored by a 113,000-square foot Kroger Marketplace and 12,000 square feet of small shop space, as well as four to five small lots with unidentified tenants. It will replace a small neighborhood of about 55 homes, two hotels, a restaurant, day care center, and church. Some homes were relocated or moved.
The new shopping center is expected to add about 250 jobs.
In September, members of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, a building used for church functions as well as community events such as Rotary Club and League of Women Voters meetings, agreed to sell their 3.6-site on Robertsville Road to the shopping center. They have purchased a new 4.6-acre home on Oak Ridge Turnpike in front of the Joe L. Evins Federal Building, which is used by the U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office.
Bulldozers, excavators, loaders, and scrapers are lined up in front of the former Vista Inn on Oak Ridge Turnpike where the new Kroger Marketplace shopping center is proposed.
The city gave up Iris Circle and Robin Lane for the highly anticipated Kroger development. The Oak Ridge City Council has also approved project rezonings as well as a new stoplight at North Illinois Avenue and Ivanhoe Road.
Kroger officials have said they are leasing their current space on South Illinois Avenue and will try to find a tenant to sublease it.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
Note: This story was last updated at 7:35 p.m.
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