GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro City Council voted Tuesday night in favor of approving a $1.4 million deal to bring a Lidl grocery store to town.
City council leaders approved a motion to sell the lot to Lidl during a 9-0 vote.
"Welcome to the neighborhood," Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said after the vote.
The new Lidl store will be located on the corner of South Elm Street and Gate City Boulevard. While many support the plan, some think it could be improved.
Lidl said the store would employ about 30 people and the contract with the city stipulates that the company must get the store up and running within five years. The city did give the company room for two additional time frame extensions of one year each.
During Tuesday's meeting, council members asked Lidl representatives if it would take that long. A representative said it depends on the work needed at the site before construction begins.
"I can tell you we would be horrible businessmen if we didn't want to provide you guys with a grocery store as soon as it is possible to do so," Richard Jordan said.
Some community leaders want the site to be used for more than a grocery store.
Downtown Greensboro Incorporated wants Lidl to consider making it a mixed-use development with parking and maybe even apartments. Councilmembers said there may be opportunities for that in other parts of the area.
"I'm not willing to forego a grocery store in a food desert for parking," Councilwoman Sharon Hightower said. "I think the city manager proposed a great idea to have a work session and talk about parking."
The plan, for now, is a stand-alone grocery store with about 100 parking spaces.
The Redevelopment Commission of Greensboro will get to review finer details, like parking before the sale officially closes and that could take a while.
The city said the deal likely won't finalize until April of 2023. That's when the five year clock starts so it could be around six years before the store opens its doors.
Many people pass through the south end of downtown daily, with few reasons to stop.
"It's about 15 minutes to get to a full Walmart or grocery store," Thomas Beatty said.
Beatty lives in the area which is known as a food desert.
"We have access to everything but a grocery store. That would be awesome if we had one here," Beatty said.
The city wants to bring one to the lot, currently serving as a parking lot.
"It would be the only major grocer that we'll have on Gate City for many miles, so I think it will be able to get a lot of different types of traffic," Mayor Nancy Vaughan said.
Vaughan said the deal has been in the works for months and she believes it would eliminate the food desert.
It's not the first time the grocery chain has come to the Triad. There are multiple other locations in our area, including Greensboro and Burlington.
The company also wanted to build a store in Eden in 2017, but construction stopped before it was finished.
The company said it changed its mind on building there, but Mayor Vaughan said she isn't worried about that happening here.
"Our contract is different than the one in Eden," Vaughan said. "This is a really good site. Lidl is known for having good prices. With the cost of groceries beginning to rise, we need a place in this area that will have fresh foods and meats and vegetables."
Guilford County Schools Board of Education chair Deena Hayes lives nearby. She's one of the hundreds who signed an online petition in favor of the store.
She hopes the deal marks a change for southeast Greensboro.
"The needs are great. The food insecurity in this neighborhood is some of the highest in the city and county. That it is not the only insecurity that people have here," Hayes said.
She said more needs to also be done to address transportation and housing issues. She also hopes that neighborhoods around the store will be a part of future conversations if construction begins.
"The southeast Greensboro plan has not materialized and it's been decades," Hayes said. "That is even more reason to engage the community, and they’re very active neighborhood associations; we meet regularly there."
One Greensboro developer worries that a stand-alone grocery store will not be enough.
Andy Zimmerman opened the Gateway office space just across the street and said he'd been talking to the city about purchasing the lot prior to the Lidl announcement.
He hopes to work with Lidl to build a parking deck or even apartments at the site.
"Southend needs revitalization, and if we had more living space, a grocery store, and more parking with an upbeat environment right next to the Greenway, it would just continue to spread on down south," Zimmerman said.
Mayor Vaughan said if Lidl purchases the property, it is possible they could do that kind of development at the site.
Hayes and others are not sure that developing the site for multiple uses is necessary but hope neighborhoods nearby would be involved in those conversations.
"We have a lot of mixed-use development in our community already," Hayes said. "I believe that there are at least five neighborhood associations within a mile of this site that has not been engaged in this process. There needs to be a genuine way for the community to be presented with the information."