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Representatives of Meijer Inc. are scheduled to appear Monday at a Board of Zoning Appeals meeting in Bargersville to talk about plans for a grocery store and a gas station at the intersection of Smokey Row Road and State Road 135.
According to the agenda’s meeting, Meijer is seeking permission to build a gas station on Johnson County property presently zoned as a “general business” commercial district.
A Meijer spokesperson told the IBJ that the Michigan-based company has not purchased property in Bargersville but has a site under contract.
“We are in the early stages of due diligence,” the spokesperson said via email. “The potential for any Meijer store there is several years away.”
The owners of the 14-acre property associated with the Meijer proposal are listed as GWSM LLC and Rainbow Rascals Greenwood II LLC.
The Meijer Grocery location is planned as a 75,000-square-foot store, according to a filing by Ohio-based architectural firm Woolpert Inc. Meijer has enlisted Woolpert to work on the placement of new stores since the mid-1980s.
The gas station proposal includes a 3,500-square-foot convenience store with the grocery store.
Across State Road 135, a Kroger Marketplace operates east of the proposed Meijer development.
Meijer Grocery is a concept smaller than the company’s traditional supercenter format that sells electronics, toys, sporting goods and clothing in addition to food and pharmacy items. The first two Meijer Grocery stores debuted in January with locations in the Detroit suburbs of Lake Orion and Macomb Township.
Last October, Meijer announced plans to build a 90,000-square-foot Meijer Grocery location on the west side of Noblesville. The chain operates a supercenter on the east side of Noblesville, at 17000 Mercantile Blvd.
The two closest Meijer supercenters to the intersection of Smokey Row Road and State Road 135 do business at 150 S. Marlin Drive, Greenwood (occupying 210,000 square feet), and 2389 N. Morton Road, Franklin (192,000 square feet).
Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Meijer Inc. operates more than 245 stores in six Midwest states, including more than 40 in Indiana.
Meijer also is interested in opening a 160,000-square-foot store with a gas station in Brownsburg, WXIN-TV Channel 59 reported earlier this month. The 30-acre site, which has not been purchased by Meijer, is north of Hendricks Regional Health Brownsburg Hospital near the intersection of County Road 600 North and County Road 900 East.
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Meijer should build one of their urban concept stores Downtown near “new Methodist”.
They already exist in Grand Rapids, Detroit, and other Michigan cities. It’s time to bring them here.
Meijer tried to get into that are a few times. At one time they were looking to build a store near 16th and Martin Luther King, that was met with neighborhood resistance because they would have to remove some housing that was considered historic. At another point there was talk of them going into / next to the IU Development near Capitol and 16th but last I heard in IBJ is that IU wanted to select the grocery / retail tenant(s). I agree an urban format Meijer would be great for Downtown Indy if they can find the right space. Possibly around the Stutz building there are some open / parking lots that could be a good fit.
It’s too bad they can’t put this new store in at Stones Crossing and 135 to replace the former Marsh location. I understand why Kroger has the property and is trying to keep competitors out. But I’d say it’s time to drop that stance if Meijer had figured out how to get into that area.
Also, White River Township residents? Get out now. Another development coming into the area and the tax revenues are going to Bargersville…the rest go to Greenwood, which has annexed all the prime commercial land along SR135 while the majority of the housing is the problem of the county. When your subdivision streets start falling apart, no way Johnson County will be able to keep up on all that maintenance, nor will they be much inclined to given how County governance is stacked towards the rest of the county.
There’s a Meijer less than 5 mins north of that closed Marsh. Why would Meijer build a store that close to one that is already busy and successful?
Frankly, because people aren’t wanting to drive north of Smith Valley, which is overbuilt and is a traffic disaster.
The population explosion south of Smith Valley is something, and it is quite clear that businesses want to be further south.
Witness Cunningham Restaurant Group announcing they’re closing their Stone Creek location near County Line Road and opening a new combination Stone Creek/Bru Burger further north.
Kroger has stores at Smokey Row and another just south of Fairview. I personally expect Walmart to make a move to the south if possible.
^^ new combination Stone Creek/Bru Burger further SOUTH.
Joe…that Walmart is already one of the newest in the metro area. Can’t imagine they’d close and move, since it’s right across from Target and south of Smith Valley already.
Joe, note that there are a couple of Census tracts with Carmel-Geist level median household incomes in WRT. I think you’re overlooking the fact that unincorporated WRT is the goose that lays the golden (local income tax) eggs for the County, i.e. carry the rest of the County. The Council can’t afford to overlook all those wealthy subdivisions…no reason for folks to bail.
I could see Walmart adding a second location and/or one of their own grocery concepts further south. Kroger has two, Meijer has two, why not Walmart with two?
I don’t think the Council cares. They’re quite content to think they’re still a farming community, and they aren’t much for change or as Mike notes, effective planning for all those people coming into the area. As you can tell from my tone, I bailed a long time ago.
Witness the blowback that Mark Myers got in nearby Greenwood – Joe Hubbard got 45% of the electorate to think he was a good idea? Seriously? Myers is the best thing that’s happened to that area in some time.
I almost wrote that, Joe…put another Walmart just south of 144 and 135, or west on 144 near I-69. Or, on the old Bargersville Flea Market site.
I get the Meijer thing, since the store on 135 is right in the middle of the traffic congestion. (I don’t even go on 135 on weekends because of it.)
One more thing – they’re looking at a 50,000 square foot grocery store to finish off the Wakefield development at the corner of Smith Valley and Morgantown.
Given it’s a PUD and it was all approved by the county at least 20 years ago, I’m not sure how much they’re going to be able to do when it comes to the developer helping with widening the road … and sure, it sounds lovely and I also miss Hampton’s Market on that corner … but 150,000 square foot of retail off that intersection has all the earmarks of a disaster. Which is too bad, because going south on Morgantown was the smart way to avoid the evening train wreck that is SR135 southbound.
https://dailyjournal.net/2023/06/05/market-district-coming-to-white-river-township/
Joe, not looking to build…the Market District store is under construction right now.
Bluff/Morgantown got overwhelmed when 135 got overwhelmed when I-65/70 was closed and SR37, Meridian, Raymond, and Shelby were under construction at the same time. People were using 135 and Bluff in place of I-65 from Downtown to Johnson County.
Thanks for the update. I don’t get that way as much as I used to.
Upgrading SR37 to interstate standards from SR144 to I-465 was always inevitable to move traffic and I’m hopeful it makes a difference.
Where in Bargersville? Maybe this will help bring in some additional casual restaurants. Our Table is great, but a little pricey to go too often and P&L in downtown Bargersville is just awful.
Joe B. Is correct, I live south of Smith Valley and dread that light/intersection. The state and county keep kicking the can on fixing that intersection. I fear Stones Crossing is going to become worse. They are adding a new traffic light just south of stones crossing
The main issue is that Smith Valley should have been made 4 lanes from Emerson Ave. west to SR37/I-69 already. It’s the only cross-county east-west road that hooks to both interstates between SR44 and County Line, with the exception of the just-finished Worthsville/Stones Crossing Rd… but Stones Crossing doesn’t have an interchange with I-69.
It should have been done decades ago. But that’s not how Johnson County works. So instead of effective roads like the Ronald Reagan Parkway or all the work done in Hamilton County, you get a Rube Goldberg path between the Worthsville Road exit on I-65 and SR144 on I-69 and that’s “the best we can manage”.
It was a mistake for the county to allow Carefree to be built in the unincorporated Johnson County decades ago and they only recently corrected that mistake, requiring new subdivisions to be a part of either Bargersville or Greenwood. There’s a big chunk of NW White River Township that’s the county’s problem, and they’re barely able to stay ahead of the major roads in the area.
Mike – remember how they were going to install a Michigan left to fix it? Never happened.
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/johnson-county/2014/10/10/michigan-left-greenwood-johnson-county/17045019/
Yeah, Worthsville is a kluge job. It would have been better to give Whiteland Road that treatment, since it actually more or less directly leads to 144/69, but it would have wiped out half the town of Whiteland.
But Smith Valley should have been done before Worthsville. It’s basically ready through Greenwood proper, save for the RR bridge.
Joe, I was thinking they were planning a stretched-out dogbone roundabout, with the circles east of Lake City Bank and west of CVS, so that any “left turn” off Smith Valley onto 135 would require going through, then a 180 on a roundabout, followed by a right onto 135.
I heard what caused them to bail were the land acquisition costs between Averitt and US31, which I found rather weak sauce.
The boom was easily predictable 30 years ago when land was cheap and the number of housing developments being approved was growing. Real leadership would have been ready for it.
Without 24/7 service Meijer is just another store. I don’t really see a reason to choose it over a SuperTarget or Kroger.
Don’t need another gas station in the area. Another high-quality grocery store to keep Kroger in check would be welcomed, however.