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The Near East Side is largely a residential neighborhood, but severely lacks in grocery stores and healthy/fresh food options. Thankfully that is about to change with the eventual opening of a food/grocery co-op:
Local Matters and Circle 77 Launching Food Co-Op on Near East Side
The location of this resource has not yet been identified, which leaves me wondering where the best location might actually be.
If we consider the Near East Side to include Olde Towne East, King Lincoln, Franklin Park, Woodland Park, Eastgate and South of Main (pretty much everything between 70, 71, 670 and Nelson) then we're talking about a pretty large area... roughly 2.5 square miles.
The only main existing grocery store in this area is the Sav-A-Lot, located at 1179 E Main Street, which is semi central to the area as a whole, but positioned a little further south in the context of the whole area.
Other grocery-type food vendors on the Near East Side are carry outs, and groceries in those places are limited to mostly convenience items.
Nearby grocery stores to the area include the Kroger on East Main adjacent to Bexley (south east of this area), The IGA on Parsons (south of this area), The North Market (west of this area) and others further beyond.
The most central location would be close to Broad & Taylor, though I'm not sure there is a suitable site nearby, nor an existing commercial building that could easily be re-purposed.
A block south of Franklin Park is the Trolly Barn, which could be a perfect fit for this development. Developers of the site have already studied the possibility of having a community market in this project:
The only issue is that this site is already closer to both the Sav-A-Lot and the Kroger on Main Street.
Another option is the former Carl L. Brown Foodliner IGA building at Mount Vernon & Champion. The building is privately owned and I have no idea what condition it's in, or if the owners are willing to sell or lease for redevelopment, but it's already purposed as a grocery store, and in a location slightly north of central where there are fewer existing options:
The combo upside/downside is that it's also very close to the Poindexter Village public housing project, which would be a turnoff for some customers, but there are also eventual plans to demolish and redevelop much of the area, including the new $10M financial commitment from OSU to help fix up the area around OSU Hospital East, so changes are in the pipeline for the future.
Where else would this new food co-op grocery store make sense on the Near East Side? Are there other specific locations or buildings that would be a good fit?
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