ASHLAND – Chipotle and two neighboring businesses are scheduled to open in May 2017 the developers of Ashland Commons announced Thursday during a groundbreaking ceremony.
Vikaas Patni, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Meridian Realty Capital, said the fast casual Mexican restaurant, along with Sprint and Kay Jeweler, have signed leases to occupy spots in the 12,000-square-foot strip located at the former Carter Lumber site on East Main Street.
“We’re talking to a whole bunch of other users, primarily restaurants and other service-oriented users that will work for this community,” Patni said.
Meridian, a real estate development firm based in Cincinnati, is also working to lease other parcels on the site to free-standing restaurants.
“Projects of this size, multi-million dollar projects, don’t happen without a team effort. And it’s taken not just our team as developer of this project, but our tenants that we’re trying to bring here … but also the city folks and the economic development folks,” Patni said.
Chris Weist, Director of Legal Affairs for Meridian echoed Patni’s comments about teamwork and thanked the local officials for their help getting Ashland Commons in place.
“We would not be here with all of their efforts. We needed to close the gap on some financing and we did that with the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act),” Weist said.
Weist said they are expecting more than 100 new permanent jobs to be created through the businesses locating in Ashland Commons.
“It’s always exciting to take a formerly largely vacant property that was not being used and make a multi-million dollar investment which we have done … so it’s exciting for the city and it’s exciting for us,” Weist said
Simonson Construction of Ashland is doing the site work and construction work for Ashland Commons.
After ceremonially putting shovel to dirt, Meridian officials and others in attendance celebrated with a champagne toast.
City Finance Director Larry Paxton welcomed Meridian on behalf of Mayor Glenn Stewart, and County Commissioner Mike Welch said the progress is exciting to see.
“One of the biggest things that the residents of Ashland County have always asked is ‘We need more places to eat and we need more places to shop. If you want us to spend money and spend it in Ashland County, we need that.’ I can’t think of a better way to raise taxes, and I’ll emphasize on sales tax, because the county lives and breathes on sales tax. So let’s broaden the base and broaden it even further,” Welch said. “Thank you to the Meridian Capital for their investment.”
