Kroger ready to move forward with Union store design

The design for the new Union Ave. Kroger location is in its final stages

Kroger?s Union store has come along a ways since neighbors saw first drawings months ago.

The latest changes include altering the building?s colors, breaking up some of its walls with materials and design elements and softening the parking lot with more landscaping.

Joe Bell, manager of marketing and public affairs with Kroger?s Delta Division, said the changes were well-recieved at a neighborhood meeting last night, even eliciting some applause.

?If Kroger had written a movie script for it, we couldn?t have done any better,? he said.

The Pickering Firm Inc., a company which has worked on many Kroger stores, led the design on this location.

Brad Schmiedicke, a Midtown resident, led the process for Pickering.

?We need the community to want this store and like this store,? Bell said. ?Like many retailers in this area, I don?t need them to be talking about me for the next 20 years. If they did, I wanted it to be in a favorable context.?

One challenge for the property design was that the 51,000-square-foot store needed a lot of parking.

Neighborhoods asked Kroger to soften the design, so the grocery store chain came back with more landscaping and green space in its parking area.

The parking area will also have some short brown walls, surrounded by shrubbery, and berms to separate it from the sidewalk.

Neighbors along the back part of the property were concerned about noise and lighting, so Kroger is adding fencing and more landscaping.

Kroger also altered its building exterior, which had a straight masonry wall.

They broke up the design with building materials and columns, changing the exterior to more earth tones and softer browns.

?When you couple that corner with the eating area and outdoor seating, it really changed the look of the store,? Bell said.

Andy Ashby covers commercial real estate; transportation and logistics; construction; and Downtown Memphis. Contact him at aashby@bizjournals.com.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_56/~3/j7q9bIU1dPA/kroger-ready-to-move-forward-with.html

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