A rezoning map for an Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission meeting on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017, shows that a grocery or large retail store could be built on the 7.4 acres south of American Museum of Science and Energy. The map also shows three smaller retailers or restaurants are possible. AMSE is to the north of the proposed grocery or large retail building.
RealtyLink, the company developing Main Street Oak Ridge in the center of the city, is working with a grocery store that could build on property south of the American Museum of Science and Energy, an executive said Tuesday.
But Neil Wilson of RealtyLink declined to name the grocery store. He was asked to identify it during a Tuesday morning Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce event at TNBank.
“I’ll save that for my next visit,” Wilson responded with a smile.
The store hasn’t signed a lease yet, Wilson said.
RealtyLink could know more about the project in March, he said.
The grocery store could be between 50,000 and 55,000 square feet on about 7.4 acres south of AMSE, on what is now mostly a grass field between the museum and South Illinois Avenue.
If the project proceeds, construction could start in 2018, and the new store could open in 2019, Wilson said.
He said there are between five and 10 grocery stores of about that size.
That part of the former AMSE property was transferred from the U.S. Department of Energy to the City of Oak Ridge and then to TN Oak Ridge Illinois LLC, a company affiliated with RealtyLink, after an agreement signed last December.
The 7.4 acres, which was the southernmost portion of the AMSE site, could also have smaller shops, possibly including a tire store, a restaurant, and one other business, Wilson said.
See a story about the rezoning of the property here.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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