ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 29, 1997 TAG: 9701290048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
Roanoke County is giving The Kroger Co. $1.78 million in incentives to expand its distribution center in Glenvar rather than moving out of the area. The result is 125 new jobs and continued employment for 330 workers there now.
The company plans to move its truck maintenance garage out of the existing building off West Main Street in Glenvar into a new building next door. The distribution center will then be renovated, and an addition will be built to add storage space for dry goods and perishables.
Dave Osborne, president of Kroger's mid-Atlantic region, declined to estimate when hiring would begin. He said 125 warehouse workers, mechanics and drivers will be added over five years. The majority of those jobs will pay $12 an hour and up, he said.
He said the distribution center was built in 1959 to serve 50 stores in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. Today, there are 125 stores in the region, including five stores opened last year in North Carolina. Two more stores will open early this year.
Osborne said the company looked at moving the distribution center elsewhere, but opted to expand.
Roanoke County officials helped influence that decision by offering the $1.78 million incentive package that took six months to negotiate.
"It has been your work and cooperation and support that has made it possible to build this facility in Roanoke County that will serve us for many, many years," Osborne told members of the Board of Supervisors during their Tuesday meeting.
Of the incentive package, $870,000 was in escrow while the county and Kroger tried to settle a dispute over whether the grocery chain has been paying too much in business license taxes since 1994.
Most of the money being spent by the county will go toward widening Garman Road and realigning it so it will intersect with West Main Street across from Alleghany Drive. A traffic signal will be installed.
Kroger's tractor-trailers now make 1,200 trips a week in and out of the distribution center without benefit of a traffic signal. Osborne estimated that truck traffic will increase by 50 percent with the improvements being planned.
The county will spend another $400,000 to buy 4.8 acres from four local property owners. Tim Gubala, Roanoke County's director of economic development, said negotiations on some of those sales are not complete. The remainder of the incentive money will go toward water and sewer extensions, drainage improvements and engineering fees.
Gubala said the county will get back all of its $1.78 million through new tax revenue in five or six years. The garage and expansion of the distribution center will have a value of $35 million.
County Administrator Elmer Hodge said construction is expected to begin on the new garage in April.
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