By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Shopko will be building a store in Nephi on North Main.
Glenn Greenhalgh, Nephi City Planning Commission Chairman, said that the new Shopko will be constructed on the site the council recently approved to be separated from a larger parcel of land owned by the Painter Family Trust.
"You are all aware that we have been working on the location for the new Shopko," said Greenhalgh.
He said that the news could now be released as the company had agreed that could be done. The company would like to begin construction on the building during March.
"The planning commission reviewed a site plan for a building to be constructed on lot 1 of plat A in the North Main Subdivision,"said Mayor Mark Jones.
The site plan had previously been reviewed by the city's development review committee.
The development review committee for the city consists of the department heads of the city, Randy McKnight, city administrator, and Greenhalgh.
Site plan approval does not require council action.
"The site plan received conditional approval from the planning commission, conditioned on the zoning administrator's final review and sign-off," said Jones.
Greenhalgh said that a new name for the subdivision will be put into place. Rather than being called the "North Main Subdivision," it will be called the "Shopko Subdivision."
"It is better if the name used is a little more descriptive," said Greenhalgh.
Greenhalgh said that he was satisfied with the proposal made by Shopko to build on the site. The building will be located along Main Street and will be just north of Painter Motor. It will be between the car dealership and the Chinese restaurant.
He said that Shopko had hired a contractor who would construct the building as soon as the preliminary plans had all been approved.
"The utilities are in the east alignment," said Greenhalgh.
Meaning that the site has access to water, electricity and natural gas nearby and it will not require much distance to provide those utilities to the new building.
Shopko will be asked to consider looping the water line and they will also still need to get a permit from UDOT for egress and ingress.
Engineering will determine what sort of storm water provision will be needed. It may be that they will be requested to put a retention basin at the front of the building.
Plans do not include development of a 100 East Street but, whoever develops the remainder of the Painter Family Trust property to the east, which includes property from the back of the Shopko property up to 400 East, around the North Nephi Stake Center, and back to the rear of Painter Motor, will have to develop a 200 East Street.
"This Shopko (formerly ShopKo until May 2007) will be one of three the company is building in Utah this year," said Greenhalgh. "Pat Painter worked hard to get Nephi on the list to be one of the top three sites in the state to receive a building."
Shopko is a chain of retail stores based in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, near Green Bay. The chain was founded in 1962 by James Ruben, and its first store opened in Green Bay. From 1991 to 2005, the company was publicly owned.
In December 2005, the company was acquired by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners and reverted to private ownership.
In 1999, Shopko purchased Pamida, a regional discount chain that operated mainly in smaller communities of 3,000 to 8,000 people. Shopko operated Pamida as a separate division until 2007, when Pamida was separated from Shopko and reestablished as a separate company.
In 2012, Shopko and Pamida merged into one company. Shortly after, most Pamida stores were rebranded as Shopko Hometown.
The company operates over 300 stores located in 20 states including Northern California, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. These stores are placed in small to mid-sized communities. Such stores are multi-department operations.
"This will not be one of the larger stores," said Greenhalgh.
The newest concept by Shopko, is aimed at smaller communities ranging from 3,000 to 8,000 in population, and stores carry about 70 percent of the merchandise carried at Shopko's larger stores.
