Goodwill broke ground on a new facility in Independence on Thursday. Once complete, the new store will replace the current facility on Taylor Mill Road.
“Our little store where we are now is doing great,” said Steve McCann, an Independence resident and the manager of the current store. “We’re one of the most successful stores sales-wise in the organization, and so it’s obvious that this community is craving more.”
The new store is set to open early next year, Ohio Valley Goodwill CEO Mark Hiemstra said. The current store’s lease is set to end in October, but representatives from Goodwill informed LINK nky that on the day of the groundbreaking, the company is currently negotiating with the land owner to extend the lease long enough to continue operating during construction.
The council approved a development plan for the new store in April.
The store is set to be built on a 2.4-acre site of vacant land at the intersection of KY-17 and McCullum Pike, near the sign for the Courthouse Crossing neighborhood. The address for the new facility is on Courthouse Crossing itself.
Zoning for the area had been approved in the early 2010s, so the company’s development plan had to get the city council’s green light but not the county planning commission’s. Two Council Members, Greg Steffen and Greg Waite, voted against approving the plan. The rest of the council voted in favor of it.
City documents show attempts to meaningfully develop the land date back to 2011 and 2012, when a steering committee of community members met 19 times and held two public meetings over a roughly 18-month period to collect public feedback on what ought to go there. The results of the process were presented to the city council at the time, which later enacted a special zone called a GMU. The land itself, as well as several surrounding areas, was rezoned as GMU by the end of 2012.
The city revised its zoning regulations in 2022. The land was re-zoned to a new planned unit development, or PUD, zone, but development conditions set forth in the previous GMU zone were kept.
The new store’s development plan calls for 17,855 square feet and would contain a retail area, loading bay and a stockroom. Existing detention basins on the site will be landscaped. Although the store will feature a drive-up donation drop area, people will not be able to drop off donations after hours. Kenton County planning professionals, who had reviewed the plan, recommended adding a sidewalk along KY-17.
Representatives from Goodwill confirmed with LINK nky that no significant changes to the development plan had occurred since April. A significant change in the plan would require a new vote from the city council.
“Last year, Ohio Valley Goodwill served thousands of individuals, helped hundreds of individuals find employment as we expanded in additional service housing supports. That’s what this groundbreaking represents…,” said Hiemstra on Thursday, “another opportunity to strengthen this community.”
“I talk to a lot of our customers, and they know about this,” McCann said. “This is coming, and they’re really excited too.”
