New Buckner Kroger to have ‘bells and whistles’
Kroger plans to build a new 125,000-square-foot Marketplace store in Buckner in Oldham County, but construction is on hold until road improvements are completed in the area near Interstate 71 – expected in about June of 2017.
The new store, which will have a fuel station and drive-through pharmacy on the property, will have all the “bells and whistles” of the larger Marketplace stores, Danny Lethco, Kroger real estate manager, said Tuesday.
The store will be on two parcels totaling nearly 15 acres that Kroger bought for $2.6 million at the southeast corner of the intersection of state Ky. 393 and Commerce Parkway in Buckner, which is between Crestwood and La Grange.
Marketplace stores offer expanded produce, nutrition, organic, deli, bakery, service meat, seafood and cheese sections plus such added departments as apparel, shoes, bed-and-bath, kitchen accessories, small appliances, office supplies and toys.
Most also offer a Little Clinic, Starbucks and an in-store bank.
No tentative dates have yet been set for the start of construction or the store’s opening. The state recently awarded a contract to widen Ky. 393 to five lanes between I-71 and Commerce Parkway, and the construction starting date will be discussed the first week of January, according to Andrea Clifford, a state highway department spokeswoman for Louisville.
On Commerce, which is two lanes, the state will provide a left turn lane to go toward I-71. The contract completion date is June 1, 2017.
The Kroger construction won’t start until the widening is substantially complete, Kroger spokesman Tim McGurk said in an email. The state eventually will widen Ky. 393 to five lanes all the way to Ky. 146, Clifford said.
Kroger also held a Dec. 10 soft opening for an expanded and upgraded store in Louisville at 2200 Brownsboro Road in Clifton, and a grand opening is planned Jan. 7.
A separate Wine & Spirits outlet has been added, and store improvements include expanded meat/seafood and Nature’s Market sections as a result of the $4.8 million project.