“We had countered Kroger’s offer and let them know that it was $200,000 hard, close in 90 days, no other conditions pretty much, gave them a deadline of 5 p.m.,” he said adding Ryan Ertel, who has been brokering the deal for Kroger and their landlord Regency Centers called him and said “we met all your demands.”
Welch said the vote by the trustees will have to be unanimous next Tuesday and Kroger has his vote, “it is my opinion this would be a win-win for the township.”
The township now has two nearly identical offers on the table, the other is a second proposal from Dr. Mohamed Aziz, whose offer expired Dec. 8 but he agreed to extend it, according to Welch. The Aziz offer is a lease to purchase that included the $200,000 earnest money payment — which can be applied to the purchase price — he loses if he backs out again. The first time there was a contingency that he would get his $100,000 earnest money back if he canceled in time, which he did.
Since both potential buyers have reneged on the township previously, the township wanted Kroger to also include the $200,000 non-refundable earnest money guarantee. The first time the township was left empty-handed when the Kroger sale fell through — $100,000 was on the line —because they canceled before the deadline.
The Kroger deal would be more advantageous to the township from a property tax perspective. In the beginning officials said redeveloping the 30-year-old store site would triple property values and increase the tax bill from $169,000 to more than $500,000 annually and double the plaza footprint to about 20 acres.
Aziz paid $39,524 in property taxes on his current location on U.S. 42, according to the auditor’s office.
Trustee Ann Becker told the Journal-News that is important to her and she is “cautiously optimistic” this deal will be done.
“I think a new Kroger on Cox Road will be a huge benefit for the community. And I know it will add value to the east side of town,” Becker said. “It would be a big addition to the tax base, in addition to being a good resource for shopping it will also generate quite a bit of tax revenue for the township.”
Trustee Lee Wong couldn’t be reached for comment but told the Journal-News previously he’ll consider the new offer.
“This better be the last dance with Kroger, I’m tired of it,” Wong said. “If it was up to me no, it’s over, but they want to give them one more chance... So we put in with a counter and they’d better come up with something better.”
The previous deal was contingent on Regency Centers being able to acquire the Activity Center, the Providence Bible Fellowship church, a parcel from Chesterwood Village and easements and agreements with about 10 other property owners to complete the complicated deal. Kroger backed out of the deal at the height of the pandemic in 2020.
Kroger won’t comment on these latest developments but if the same acquisitions are necessary — it is unclear what all was entailed in the Kroger’s tax hike predictions — the township could reap even more property tax benefits. The church is tax exempt and owns two parcels — it is unknown if both are needed for the new Kroger — one is valued at $914,540 and the other at just over $1 million. If a sale is made the tax-exempt status will be removed, according to Mike Stein, tax accounting manager for the county auditor’s office.
“Land values in the West Chester area have continued to increase and the location of this property is very desirable,” Stein said. “If the property is ever sold and developed, the parcels will be removed from the exempt status and will then be reviewed based on the transaction and the current market conditions.”
Regency had secured agreements with the church and the Dixon family that owned Chesterwood.
Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon told the Journal-News when they told Chesterwood — the sale went through in May — they retained the property Kroger needs. He has basically retired from the family business so he wasn’t aware if Kroger or Regency has reached out to them but he doubts the former agreement is still valid.
“I doubt that it still is, the effective date has probably all passed, I think all those did, but we still have the property,” Dixon said.
Church officials could not be reached for comment, but they have relocated to the Morning Star Baptist Church location on Summerhill Drive in West Chester. The county auditor’s website shows Providence purchased the property for $2 million Feb. 26, 2020.
The Activity Center came into play after Community First Solutions stopped providing senior programming in 2019. Shortly thereafter, the township agreed to sell the building for $1.8 million to Regency Centers for a giant Kroger Marketplace, but that turned out to be a two-year debacle.
Kroger won’t comment on the current offer or whether plans have changed, but the original plan called for a new 95,545-square-foot Kroger to replace the existing location along Tylersville Road. The grocery giant and retail center owners had bigger plans to build a 117,166-square-foot Marketplace if other pieces came together.
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