ALDI could come to Fenton.
On Thursday, August 25, the Fenton Planning Commission will discuss a site plan review of ALDI Grocery, which proposes to build a store on Owen Road near Target.
The area is 3.67 acres immediately east of the Shoppes of Fenton, which is the Target complex, the entrance and west of the Fenton High School stadium property. This is a general activity/planned unit development zoning.
Fenton Area Public Schools currently owns the land. The city won’t know who will handle the sale until it’s closed and the buyer files with the appraiser’s office. The submitted site plan shows that the access driveway to ALDI would be off Target Driveway, not Owen Road.
This is not the first time the city has considered an ALDI site plan for this land. In June 2018, Fenton Area Public Schools put the 3.6 acres of land on the market. The district planned to use the money to pay for security upgrades at Fenton AGS Middle School.
The school district previously reached an agreement with Keystone Realty to sell the property for $1.3 million once all agreements with the businesses and the municipality are final. Keystone said it wanted to develop an ALDI and a few other retailers.
When the Target project was initially approved, plans called for an access driveway to the school property. The driveway was never built.
“Unfortunately, the developer did not submit the access easement to the city for review, as required by the ordinance, otherwise we would have found that the school access easement was not included. The easement extends from Owen Road to the Tractor Supply Company,” Avantini said in a September 2020 Times article.
The city demanded that they build another easement driveway. The city and FAPS had entered into agreements with the businesses at this complex to put an easement driveway on the two-way road that passes through Speedway, at the entrance and exit of the complex, which would lead to the property of 3 .6 acres.
In 2020, Avantini said some of the business owners wanted cash from the sale of the 3.6-acre property. Mega Coney Island and Shoppes of Fenton tenants, which include Famous Footwear, Ulta, Maurices, Kay Jewelers and T-Mobile, told Avantini and FAPS they wanted reassurance that no direct competitors would be brought in. and they wanted to be paid a certain amount.
When asked how much money they were asking for in 2020, Avantini said one was “substantial” and the other was “really, really substantial.”
