After years without any, this Johnson County city could soon have 2 new grocers
After going nearly a decade without a grocery store in town, Merriam residents will soon have two choices less than a mile apart from one another: a Trader Joe’s, and now an Aldi.
The Merriam City Council voted 7-1 — with Ward 3 Council member Bruce Kaldahl dissenting because of the use of public tax incentives — to approve a development agreement with R.H. Johnson Company to build the grocery store at the former Office Max at 5830 Antioch Road.
“I just think this is a really great get … for a city that’s been wanting a grocery store for a really long time,” Ward 4 Councilmember Reuben Cozmyer said during a meeting last week, adding that the two grocery stores will serve “every single member of our community.”
The estimated $5 million grocery store is a part of a larger, roughly $32 million project that includes new signage, greenspace, electric vehicle charging stations, a potential transit stop, building upgrades and one to three new buildings for additional businesses at Merriam’s Town Center just off of Interstate 35 and Johnson Drive, City Administrator Chris Engel told council members.
“We would love to see all of those other things happen, but the grocery store is the priority,” Engel said.
After the Merriam Hen House Market closed in 2018, residents have been rallying for a replacement. According to city documents, in a 2024 survey about 60% of Merriam residents supported the idea of bringing a grocery store to the community “even if it requires a multimillion-dollar incentive package.”
The incentives
To get Aldi off the ground, the development agreement proposes creating a Community Improvement District and using Industrial Revenue Bonds to help reimburse the project costs.
The bonds will also include a sales tax exemption on certain construction materials to help lower some of the project’s costs on developers.
A community improvement district, or CID, is a designated area where an additional sales tax is applied to retail and restaurant sales. The 1% sales tax, or 50 cents on a $50 receipt, will go into a special account to reimburse the developer for eligible costs for up to 22 years, Engel said.
The district excludes the existing Home Depot, IHOP and Chili’s. The CID will not apply to Aldi and no one will pay an additional tax when shopping for groceries.
According to city documents, Merriam plans to reimburse the developers about 30% of the project’s costs with the community improvement district funds, starting in October. However if the developers don’t complete the project within three years or don’t proceed with development within a year of approval, the city will not reimburse any costs.
Can Merriam support two grocery stores?
Despite high support for a grocery store in the city, Ward 3 Councilmember Kaldahl questioned the incentives for Aldi.
“There’s some risk involved here. Do we know the market will support two grocery stores?” he said. “We’ve incentivized a second grocery store when the first one we created incentives for hasn’t even opened yet. That doesn’t seem prudent to me.”
Last year, the Merriam City Council approved similar incentives for the Trader Joe’s — just a mile down the road from the proposed Aldi location — as part of a $102 million mixed use development on IKEA Way, W. 62nd Terrace and Shawnee Mission Parkway.
Engel said that the Trader Joe’s as a “regional destination” store and Aldi as a neighborhood grocery store are complimentary uses to one another that will serve all of the community.
The Trader Joe’s is estimated to open its doors this fall. Developers for Aldi are getting ready to go out for bid and identify contractors to build the store, but no specific timelines have been set for the project.
