Kroger will be breaking ground on its upcoming location near Fort Gordon Gate One on Monday. The Kroger Company announced Wednesday that it would begin construction on Eisenhower Crossing, the new Kroger Marketplace in Augusta.
On Tuesday the Augusta Commission approved the final plat for the supermarket, submitted by the Robertson Loia Roof architectural firm for approval by the Planning Commission in early December.
The grocery retailer invested $32 million in the 124,000-square foot store, and has touted the some 250 to 300 jobs it could bring to the area. When discussing the potential of the Cardinal Square planned development at Regency Mall at a town hall meeting last summer, then-mayoral candidate Steven Kendrick presented the upcoming Kroger Marketplace as an example of promising economic development, calling the Fort Gordon corridor “booming.”
Kroger expects the new store to be complete and ready to open by spring of next year. The groundbreaking is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 9 at 11 a.m., at 3950 Franklin Ave.
Solvay Specialty Polymers’ upcoming new plastics facility in the Miracle Mile neighborhood was also on the Augusta Commission’s consent agenda on Monday. The plastics manufacturer had requested a special exception for five parcels of land along Clanton Road and Forward Augusta Drive, totaling approximately 86 acres.
The new plant, south of Solvay Polymers’ existing facility on Tobacco Road, is to produce polyvinylidene fluoride, a material used in electric vehicle batteries. The company claims it will be the largest such facility in the region, and bring some 100 new permanent jobs to Augusta.
A free medical clinic for the underprivileged is closer to opening off Walton Way, near the Medical District. On Wednesday, the Augusta Planning Commission unanimously voted in favor of a petition by Dr. William Salazar to rezone parcels at 904 and 916 Merry St. from Professional/Office and One-family Residential to Neighborhood Business.
Salazar is the president of local nonprofit Asociacion Latina de Servicios del CSRA, which plans to remodel the building at 904 to be a free medical facility, and the property at 916 for parking.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
