Construction has officially begun on the newest grocery store to enter Monmouth.
The location of an old K-Mart store on North 6th Street will be the location of Fareway Foods, and ground was formally broken on the location Thursday.
Monmouth Mayor Rod Davies says the Fareway — which will be located across the street from County Market — will help solve a continuing problem in the Maple City.
“It…provides an opportunity to increase our tax base, by reducing the retail leakage that our retail studies show is happening,” says Davies. In other words, Monmouth residents going to places like Galesburg or Burlington to shop.
Fareway purchased property from Monmouth College for the location. Monmouth Vice President for Finance and Business Richard Marshall says the move will be just as good for the college, as it will be for the store.
“This has allowed the college to move its facilities operations closer to campus,” says Marshall, “and also allowed us to move our development and alumni relations back on campus, where they probably should have always been. “It provides good functional operational benefit for Monmouth college as well.”
Not long after the ceremony, the Monmouth College logo on what used to be a K-Mart store came tumbling down as part of ongoing demolition efforts.
A Tax Increment Financing District was formed in order to get Fareway to locate in Monmouth.
The location will be Illinois’ third Fareway store. 75 jobs are expected to be created when the new 21,000 square feet store is built, and it’s scheduled to open sometime next Spring.
CLICK HERE to watch video of the groundbreaking ceremony. HEAR MORE FROM THE CEREMONY THURSDAY AT 5PM ON GALESBURG’S EVENING NEWS ON WGIL.
