Rezoning request reveals plans for second Hy-Vee

Springfield's Planning & Zoning Commission is scheduled to consider a rezoning request Oct. 4 that would make way for a second Hy-Vee grocery store.

The proposal calls for city officials to rezone roughly 10.5 acres of vacant wooded land to a general retail district from a single-family residential district, according to the commission's Oct. 4 agenda.

Jewell Schweitzer, who owns the land fronting Sunshine Street near Enterprise Avenue, said she is in negotiations with Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee Inc. for the purchase of the property. Schweitzer declined to disclose a purchase price or a closing date. According to the Greene County assessor, the 11.48 acres she owns at the 2100 block of Sunshine have an appraised value of $231,700.

Hy-Vee spokeswoman Ruth Comer could not be reached for comment by deadline.

The Planning & Zoning Commission agenda includes notes from a meeting held Sept. 13 by CJW Transportation Consultants LLC to discuss plans with the property's nearby neighbors in the Washita subdivision.

The notes indicate Hy-Vee is planning to build a store identical in size to the 86,000-square-foot West Battlefield Road store, a roughly $17 million facility that opened in October 2011 and marked the company's entrance into the Springfield market. The East Sunshine Street location also would include a gas station and convenience store.

Project costs aren't detailed in the report, but according to the notes, Hy-Vee plans to invest several million dollars into the proposed store. Construction is expected to begin next summer, and the store would open in summer 2014, according to the meeting notes.

When the Battlefield Road location opened, it employed 527, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.