LUCAS COUNTY, (WTOL) - Road improvements are fueling development efforts where State route 64 meets the new U.S. Route 24 in Lucas County.
An executive with Chicago-based General Growth Properties, which owns the Shops at Fallen Timbers, says the company has an announcement planned for next Friday. While the company says they have no immediate plans for expansion, folks are hopeful about economic development.
Danberry National Limited's Brian McMahon says the new U.S. Route 24, which is under construction, will have a significant, positive spin-off effect on growth in the area.
McMahon says unlike Airport Highway and Central Avenue, which have major traffic issues, U.S. Route 24 is a limited access road and the nearly 500 acres of land surrounding the Shops at Fallen Timbers are ripe for further development.
"The first thing that is newsworthy: General Growth has come out of chapter 11, so now they're poised to begin developing additional phases they have," said McMahon.
Nearby, a new Kroger store has opened at the intersection of State route 64 and where the U.S. "new 24" is being built.
The Moses-Schlachter Group's Tom Schlachter says a few weeks ago, license plates from nine different Ohio counties were spotted in the store's parking lot. He says that means when U.S. Route 24 will draw people from as far away as Indiana line, when completed.
That grocery store is located on a 400-acre site called Waterville Landing where a mixed-use development project is gaining momentum.
"We've had inquiries on medical, on multi-family, hotels, and of course highway commercial, fast food people looking at it," said Schlachter.
The Toledo to Napoleon section of U.S. Route 24 is scheduled to open in the summer of 2012.
