The city first announced plans to collaborate with Gordon Food Services on a project to fill the city’s fresh food void in early 2020. Just months later, the project was put on hold in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
This week, Trotwood City Council passed a resolution to officially enter into an agreement with GFS to open a full-service supermarket and wholesale grocery store.
As part of the agreement, GFS will be entered into the city’s Incentive Compensation Program, allowing the business to be compensated with non-tax fund grants based on a percentage of local withholdings paid to the city by GFS for all new employees hired after the new location’s opening date over the next 10 years.
“The nice thing about the incentive structure we put in place is that it’s going to be based on the sustainability of their job creation,” said Chad Downing, Trotwood Community Improvement Corporation director. “This is a framework that’s truly a partnership in that it’s going to allow them to grow as they need, as both macro and micro economics will dictate, but it also incentivizes them to create these jobs.”
The Michigan-based food service currently operates a wholesale store at 5380 Salem Ave. in Trotwood. This new location will open just over a mile down the road at 5031 Salem Ave., in the former Best Buy building.
The relocation and of GFS will expand its operations from a 15,000-square-foot building to 52,000 square feet, while increasing the number of employees from 20 to at least 30, Downing said.
“This project will be excellent in helping to stimulate that immediate area, both economically and by bringing more residents to that location,” Downing said, adding that the new store will be located across the street from the RTA West Hub. “This will provide accessibility for everyone, including those who use public transportation as their primary mode of mobility.”
The new grocery store is estimated to open by early fall of this year.
Growth is also underway nearby, with the redevelopment of the vacant Sears & Roebuck building at the former Salem Mall plaza.
Officially closed in January of 2014, the building sits on a site that has been earmarked for $2 million in funding for redevelopment through the help of U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton.
Trotwood officials’ vision for the building include it being the future home of the Funk Music Hall of Fame & Exhibition Center, along with produce growers and “banking, office space and entrepreneurial programs,” Mayor Mary McDonald said earlier this year.
That building has also been nominated for placement on the National Register of Historic Places.
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