"We're still hiring," Jeff Heinen said. "While we've hired the majority of people, we are still looking. Roughly half of the people will be existing Heinen's associates; the other half will be new." Watch video
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After months of telling shoppers the Downtown Heinen's likely wouldn't be ready until the end of March, Jeff Heinen now says the store could open as early as Feb. 25, a month ahead of schedule.
"It's not carved in stone, but it is the date we're shooting for," he said, cautioning that "we still have hurdles to clear."
View full sizeTom Heinen, left, and his brother Jeff Heinen, co-presidents of Heinen's Fine Foods, confirmed today that their Downtown Cleveland grocery store could open as early as Feb. 25."If we open on that date," it would be at 10 a.m., with he and his brother, Tom, doing a traditional butcher-block ribbon-cutting. That is a nod to their grandfather and company founder, Joe Heinen, the meat-cutter who began the family business in 1929.
"Nothing really happened" to accelerate the timetable, Heinen said. They had used the late-March date because they were being conservative about how long it would take to convert the former Ameritrust Tower and its striking rotunda into a high-end grocery store with full-service meat, bakery and prepared foods departments.
That's after having initially said the store would open in late 2014 only to postpone the date into 2015. "We were just trying not to over-promise and under-deliver," he said.
This will be Heinen's 18th store in Northeast Ohio and 22nd store overall, after the four in suburban Chicago suburbs opened in 2012 and 2014. The brothers have also signed a letter of intent to open a store in Chagrin Falls at some point later this year.
The downtown store, at the southeast corner of East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue, will anchor The 9 mixed-use development. It will eventually employ about 80 people in full- and part-time roles.
"We're still hiring," Jeff Heinen said. "While we've hired the majority of people, we are still looking. Roughly half of the people will be existing Heinen's associates; the other half will be new."
Candidates can apply online at heinens.com for open positions throughout the store.
By early February, "if all goes as planned, we'll be 98 percent done except for the stocking" of shelves, he said.