
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 12, 1993                   TAG: 9308120120
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WINN-DIXIE, PLAZA APPROACH FINAL PARTING

The Winn-Dixie grocery store at The Plaza of Roanoke-Salem will close Aug. 31, a year and a half after the company announced plans to shut the 32-year-old supermarket.

Ivan Hardesty, marketing director for Winn-Dixie Stores' Raleigh, N.C., region, said Wednesday that efforts will be made to offer other jobs to as many of the store's 30 employees as possible.

Hardesty and other regional officials persuaded the company to keep the Plaza store open last year because it serves some long-time customers who walk to the Melrose Avenue facility.

Also, The Plaza management allowed the store to stay on a month-to-month lease almost rent-free. It is the largest tenant and one of the few tenants in the 243,000-square-foot center.

Ken Sachs, of Metropolitan Asset Management Inc., the Northern Virginia company that oversees the center, said he learned Monday that Winn-Dixie was leaving for sure.

He said a replacement tenant "is being worked on."

"We're confident that we'll be able to get another grocery store in," Sachs said.

He said the center has been able to add several tenants recently, and he doesn't want the anchor location to remain vacant.

The store is the third Roanoke Valley Winn-Dixie to close. In April 1992, the company shut a store on Virginia 419 near Tanglewood Mall in Southwest Roanoke County and in August 1992 it shut its supermarket at West Salem Plaza in Salem.

But Hardesty said the closing does not mean Winn-Dixie is no longer interested in the Roanoke Valley. "We absolutely haven't dismissed expanding in Roanoke, but good locations are very rare," he said.

Winn-Dixie has stores in Vinton, Troutville, Rocky Mount and Bedford. Last year, the Troutville store was expanded by 9,500 square feet, making it one of the company's largest.

He said a new store opens Sept. 1 on U.S. 220 near Martinsville, and a replacement store is under construction east of Martinsville.

In its 1992 fiscal year, Jacksonville, Fla.-based Winn-Dixie reported $10.8 billion in sales in its 1,130 stores. It is the country's fourth-largest food chain.

For the past five years, the chain has been eliminating older stores, replacing them with new stores in some markets.

by CNB