Giant Eagle Likely Not Coming to Target Project on West 117th Street

The shell of the new Target on West 117th Street is progressing, but there was no development on the other lots on the former Ryser Property project. Giant Eagle is notorius for waiting until the last minute before commiting to a project. With the October 10 announcement of the Topps Grocery sale to Giant Eagle, it now looks like there will not be a Giant Eagle on the Target property. From Crain's Cleveland:

Giant Eagle to buy 18 Tops stores

By JOHN BOOTH
3:33 pm, October 10, 2006

Giant Eagle has agreed to buy 18 Northeast Ohio Tops supermarkets, then sell four of them to Cleveland-based Dave’s Supermarkets, and one to a local Giant Eagle independent operator in a deal announced Tuesday.

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. Terms were not released.

Tops parent company, Netherlands-based Royal Ahold N.V., put 46 area Tops up for sale in July. A statement on the sale says Tops “will be finalizing additional agreements by the end of the year.”

“We have every hope that those agreements will include all the (Northeast Ohio) stores,” Tops spokeswoman Tracy Pawelski said.

Giant Eagle spokesman Rob Borella explained that the new Dave’s stores will remain closely tied to the Pittsburgh-based company.

“We supply Dave’s Supermarkets on the grocery side and, additionally, we’re going to extend our relationship with Dave’s and, probably sometime in early December, begin to operate Giant Eagle pharmacies inside of those four Dave’s Supermarkets locations,” Mr. Borella said.

Mr. Borella also said Gillombardo’s Giant Eagle, which runs an independently-owned store at 5841 Broadway Ave., will turn the Tops at 1825 Snow Road in Parma into a second Gillombardo’s Giant Eagle.

Officials at Dave’s and Gillombardos referred inquiries on the deal to Mr. Borella.

Tops’ inventory should be liquidated by early December, after which the stores will close temporarily for restocking.

Giant Eagle new store opening timeline

Giant Eagle locations opening mid-December 2006
14100 Detroit Ave. in Lakewood (will replace existing Giant Eagle location)

Giant Eagle locations opening in January 2007
870 N. Court St. in Medina
80 Whittlesey Ave. in Norwalk
21593 Lorain Road in Fairview Park
821 Cleveland St. in Elyria
24601 Chagrin Blvd. in Cleveland
230 Howe Ave. in Cuyahoga Falls
10950 Lorain Ave. in Cleveland
3628 Mayfield Road in Cleveland Heights
6259 Mayfield Road in Mayfield Heights
3750 W. Market St. in Fairlawn

Giant Eagle Supermarkets replacing existing Giant Eagle locations in late summer 2007
1825 Snow Road in Parma (independently owned location)
7919 Day Drive in Parma
22777 Rockside Road in Bedford

New Dave’s Supermarket locations with Giant Eagle Pharmacies
22501 Shore Center Drive in Euclid
4948 Turney Road in Garfield Heights
11501 Buckeye Road in Cleveland
16820 Harvard Ave. in Cleveland

According to the site plans, you can see where Giant Eagle would have gone. With the two outlots (on the right - West 117th Street) most people were expecting a Get-Go as well. Since one of the stores they are acquiring is on Lorain Avenue in Westown Shopping Center, there is no point in them building a new store on West 117th. I suppose there is still the chance to build a Get-Go in Westown. There is plenty of room in their parking lot.

It is still a mystery what other stores are going to be built on the Target property. Target controls the property now so I doubt it would be something that would compete with them. I've been told to look at other Targets and see what stores are usually around them.

After talking with a few people, I found out there already other big box type stores that are inquiring about the second lot next to Target. The rumor going around now is that Ryser is looking at properties across the street from the Target site to do see if they can have the same success there.
Things are looking busy for the West 117th Street corridor.