Mt. Juliet to get second Kroger

Less than two weeks after finalizing a $6.5 million deal on 103 acres off Belinda Parkway and Mt. Juliet Road, Providence Marketplace developers inked a deal to bring the city its second Kroger's grocery store.
On Oct. 25, county records show Providence Marketplace – the massive retail center being developed in conjunction with the 3,200-home Providence residential development – completed a deal to purchase the property from Indiana-based M.S. Management and Associates Inc.
M.S. Management, a division of Simon Properties, acquired the parcel in the late 1980s and had considered building a shopping mall on the property. Simon Properties, which developed the Mall of America and numerous other shopping malls across the United States, scrapped those plans, however, and announced plans to sell the 103-acre tract in 2000.
Ten days after Providence Marketplace LLC acquired the land, Providence developers struck a $1.8 million deal with the Kroger Limited Partnership for a nine-acre section of the property.
According to a Kroger spokesperson, plans call for work to begin at the site within the next "two to three months," and the new grocery store is expected to open during the first quarter of 2006.
"We have plans to build a 74,000-square-foot store there. It will have a fuel center like you see at the other Mt. Juliet store. It will have a pharmacy with drive-thru service and all of the other amenities inside the store that people have come to expect in a Kroger," company spokesperson Melissa Eads said Tuesday.
She added there are no plans to close the city's existing Kroger store, located near the corner of North Mt. Juliet Road and Lebanon Road.
"It's a great location. Mt. Juliet continues to grow as Wilson County does. This just gives us another location on another side of town that will be convenient to a different group of shoppers," Eads said.
Wilson County Joint Economic and Community Development Board Executive Director Holly Sears said Kroger's plans are likely a "sign of things to come" regarding retail growth in the vicinity of the Providence residential development.
She added the new grocery store would be a welcome addition to the city's retail landscape.
"I think it is much-needed, and I think it will be a great location with the residential component going on south of (Interstate 40). I think it will be a very positive location," Sears said.
Attempts to contact Providence Marketplace developer Bill Misiaveg were unsuccessful Monday.
Staff Writer Brian Harville can be reached at 444-3952 ext. 16 or by e-mail at brian.harville@lebanondemocrat.com.