"We're going to concentrate all of our best things in the new store," Steve Albrecht said. "It's going to have a larger selection of fresh produce and prepared foods, and our grocery assortment will be larger."
GREEN, Ohio -- Family-owned Acme Fresh Market will break ground for its 16th grocery store on Aug. 21 at a $25 million retail development in the City of Green, in southern Summit County.
The 77,600-square-foot supermarket, scheduled to open in July 2014, will anchor what will be called Heritage Crossings of Green, on about 16 acres of former farmland at the northeast corner of Massillon and Graybill Roads. It will be Acme's first store in Green and the city's second supermarket after nearby Giant Eagle.
"We're expecting to employ 215, and about 20 of them will be the cream-of-the-crop leadership transferred from other stores," said Steve Albrecht, president of F.W. Albrecht Grocery Co. of Akron.
"We've been spending the last eight years remodeling and repairing our existing group of stores, and we're just about finished with that," including a rebuilt 52,000-square-foot store in Cuyahoga Falls that opened on June 4.
"And now we're going to concentrate all of our best things in the new store," he said. "It's going to have a larger selection of fresh produce and prepared foods, and our grocery assortment will be larger."
The Mayor of Green, Dick Norton, who had looked forward to welcoming Diebold Inc.'s $100 million high-tech headquarters to the city before the company changed its mind amid major restructuring and cost-cutting, welcomed news of Acme's newest store.
"Green has actively sought an additional grocery store for many years at the request of our residents, and we are very excited that Albrecht Inc. will be bringing its Acme Fresh Market store to our city," Norton said via email.
"The new store and the surrounding additional retail space will bring additional jobs and amenities to those that live and work in Green."
The City of Green has tried to make the Massillon Road corridor more attractive to development, by widening Massillon Road from I-77 to Wise Road and by creating a Community Entertainment District that enables restaurants and other businesses to acquire another 15 state liquor licenses. City officials also anticipate that lease rates will increase as vacant retail and office spaces are filled.
Besides Acme, Heritage Crossings has another 31,178 square feet of space for stores, restaurant and service businesses. Joe Albrecht, vice president of retail properties for Albrecht Inc. and Steve Albrecht's son, declined to identify future tenants or how much of the space is leased, but said he is still seeking occupants.
Albrecht said the Green store will be a prototype store for future Acme stores. Albrecht Inc., a real estate company run by the same family that owns Acme Fresh Markets, owns and manages more than 4 million square feet of retail, grocery and industrial real estate.
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View full sizeThe Acme Fresh Market at Massillon and Graybill Roads will be the second supermarket in Green when it opens in July 2014.At 77,500 square feet, the Green store will be more than twice as big as Acme's original 35,000-square-foot store in Cuyahoga Falls.
But it is a third of the size of the former 240,000-square-foot Acme Click general merchandise store, which the family believes was the largest free-standing store in the U.S. when it opened in the early 1990s.
In the late 1990s, the Albrecht family got out of the general merchandise business to focus exclusively on its supermarkets, and "77,000-square-foot is about the sweet spot" in terms of store size, Joe Albrecht said.
A 17th Acme Fresh Market is planned for Medina, south of State Road 3, but that store won't open until after the Green store does.
Steve Albrecht said the Green store will feature a more modern decor, faster checkout and a store layout that's easier to navigate. "We try to make our stores easy for our customers to shop in, so they can find what they want very quickly."
"Green is a wonderful, growing community," he said. "We think many of the residents of Green are familiar with Acme Fresh Markets, and we look forward to serving them."
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