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To: City Council Members and Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson
From: Carty Finkbeiner
Re: Kroger Issue
Ed. Note: This letter was sent to City Council Members
before their vote on the Krogers’ zoning issue this week
Council members, I believe
life is a wonderful marathon race. It is broken up, however,
into innings – like innings in a baseball game. And, our
lives have to score positive points in some key innings, if
the final score is to reflect that we made wise decisions
during the course of our lives. Particularly, did we score
positive points in key innings when we were the batter at
the plate? You are the batter at the plate, in this very
important inning of the city’s life. Will you hit a home
run? Will you strike out?
I can tell you – as a
10-year veteran of this Council, and a 12-year resident of
the corner office on the 22nd floor, you should
hit this “pitch” out of the park because it truly is a “No
Brainer.”
Kroger is hell-bent upon
building or expanding upon their present property on Monroe
Street so that they can compete with competition that is
going to open up nearby on Secor Rd. They just did this same
thing in Perrysburg where they expanded – did not build a
new Kroger’s – at their site on Route 20, just across the
street from the Holiday Inn. In fact, Kroger either expands
their present sites, or builds new stores - very frequently
in the suburbs.
Their track record in
Toledo is quite different. They have closed stores on
Manhattan Blvd, on Glendale Avenue, on Woodville Road, at
Swayne Field and on Suder Avenue. They will shut down at
Southland Shopping Center before long, I predict. At the
same time, Kroger has built new stores on Holland-Sylvania
Road in Sylvania Township, in Maumee, in Oregon and in
Waterville. In fact, Kroger has a track record, in at least
three other Ohio cities, of closing urban core stores and
then building new stores in suburbia.
The administration and
council should take a hard, long look at the Kroger closures
in our city – particularly our central city – and ask why?
Why is there no Kroger store in central Toledo? There are
other grocery stores serving residents of the Central City –
on Bancroft and Cherry, on Broadway near South, on Central
near Cherry, on Main Street in East Toledo. I helped Kroger
locate and build upon Glendale at Detroit and Jack Ford
assisted with the present Kroger store on Monroe Street. And
I can testify today that I am disappointed, as is my wife,
in the lack of food options available and the lack of
cleanliness at the store on Glendale and Detroit. We are not
alone. It simply should be better maintained!
Kroger, like most big, big
companies, is more interested in volume than in quality.
Visit Fresh Market at Westgate, or a Monnette’s, or a
Churchill’s and you’ll find management going out of its way
to offer a variety of options, terrific delis and clean
stores and parking lots. In fact, the suburban Krogers I
visit from time-to-time – there is no comparison between the
appearance of those stores and the deli offerings available
vs. the Toledo stores. There are simply more supplies and
options available in suburban Krogers.
Remember, council members,
you’re the batter and the subject is “has Kroger’s been an
investor in Central Toledo and have their stores in Toledo
been maintained as well as their suburban stores?” After 25
years of officially keeping score myself – the answer is NO!
The Notre Dame site is the
single most attractive parcel of land in West Toledo. And
Kroger wishes to lay cement, after clearing beautiful
landscape – years and years in the growing – and then put up
a huge box-like grocery store WHEN THEY OWN A PROPERTY A
SHORT DISTANCE AWAY AND HAVE SEVERAL OTHER SITES AVAILABLE
ON SECOR, AS WELL AS THE ANDERSONS STORE ON TALMADGE ROAD.
If they truly cared about our city, they would re-build on
their present site just as they did in Perrysburg or buy the
Andersons property on Talmadge Rd. But “NO” – THEY WANT TO
TEAR DOWN AND PERMANENTLY RUIN THE MOST ATTRACTIVE SITE OF
LAND AND HISTORIC BUILDINGS IN WEST TOLEDO. And if you
approve, that site will not be available for future
development that would preserve the green landscape,
historic buildings and peacefulness that exist there.
The sisters of Notre Dame
– wonderful and dedicated women they are – should look at
the option the Miller Diversified people, the same company
that developed Arrowhead Park in Maumee, put on the table.
It is real, it is equal in dollars and the community
development envisioned will preserve the historic integrity
of this site, while offering new housing, education and
socializing opportunities to seniors and to others.
The personality of Monroe
Street in the vicinity of Secor Road and out by the Franklin
Park Mall all the way to Sylvania is commercially zoned and
busy, busy, busy with cars, stop lights and businesses. It
is great for Toledo’s economy and for the merchants of this
busy street. At Secor and Monroe streets there is a
beautiful oasis – the site of Notre Dame Academy. And this
oasis needs to remain an oasis – an interruption to the
non-stop traffic, cars and businesses.
The Miller interest in
this property is real. Every project they have been a
partner in, including Arrowhead Park in Maumee, has been
done with fine detail and attention to how human beings can
move about quietly and peacefully in their neighborhoods.
If you were not aware,
Miller and Danberry Real Estate Company, for whom Councilman
Rob Ludeman has worked for years, are preparing to merge.
When they do, the merged companies will become a very real
force for positive real estate developments in northwestern
Ohio and southeastern Michigan. And, the proposal that
Miller made to the sisters of Notre Dame was for the type of
balanced community living opportunities that will attract
senior Toledoans to it, while preserving the natural beauty
and historic properties at this site. Monroe Street does not
need another Kroger box store decimating this outstanding
piece of property.
Now, let us talk jobs –
construction jobs. I understand Shawn Enright is pushing
this project because of the jobs it will create. However, a
Kroger Store at this site will actually cost Toledo union
workers jobs. If Kroger builds at this site, that’s it for
jobs – no more. However if Miller Diversified builds upon
this site, Kroger will find another site to build upon, or
simply expand at their present site as they have done in
other areas and you will have both the Miller construction
jobs and Kroger construction jobs. And, Kroger will build
another store! They want to keep up with the competition
they will be getting on Secor Road.
Speaking of the building
of another Kroger store, may I ask council members to have a
Kroger store built in central Toledo, including downtown
Toledo. Kroger continues to move their stores closer and
into suburbia. And as they do, they are hiring fewer and
fewer minorities. During the past 48 hours I visited six
Kroger stores – three in Toledo and three in suburbia. I
wanted to count the number of minority employees on the
floor and visible at these six stores. I have been told that
Kroger has promised to build a central Toledo store – if you
give them this site. I was told that 20 years ago!
No such store has been
built, and since that time five Toledo stress in the urban
core of Toledo have been shuttered. Thus I wanted to see
what the employment staff looked like at the six stores I
just toured. Here are the exact numbers as these employees
were front, center and busily involved in their Kroger
duties the last 48 hours.
Total Employees – 133
Caucasian – 110
African American – 20
Hispanic/Latino – 3
I am told that Toledo’s
minority population is 33 percent. Kroger is hiring, based
on my observation, about 16 percent of their employees from
the minority population – not nearly what they should be
doing.
Do those of you voting
today – and next week – believe that the city of Toledo owes
Kroger the benefits of this lovely piece of property that
could easily remain a jewel in the middle of a very busy
corridor? Or, should you be guided by a Plan Commission that
studies these proposals with great integrity and forethought
– a Plan Commission that has twice rejected this Kroger
proposal. And they were not aware of the promises Kroger
made to Mayor Ford and myself about building a central city
Krogers. And I doubt they studied the make-up of the Kroger
workforce as I did the past two days. Other then the Kroger
Monroe Street store, there were no more than two or three
minorities out of 25 employees at five other stores.
In your public lives, this
is a very important inning. Twenty years from now you can
point to a box store on cement at Monroe and Secor and ask,
“why did I allow this?” Or, you can, 20 years from now,
point to trees, green grass, some meaningful buildings and a
campus-like setting, with people strolling about and say
“isn’t that beautiful! I played a key role in preserving
that beautiful piece of real estate.”
This issue is a
no-brainer. Hold the hand of the Sisters, suggest they
review the Miller proposal – or others. And send Krogers
back to the drawing board. There are about a half-dozen
appropriate Kroger type parcels in the neighborhood! And
please push for a central city store – with a higher
percentage of minority employees.
Carty Finkbeiner
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