Retail rolling along

LIMA - The red brick is nearing the top of the outer wall. The familiar tan stucco is all but done. The Elida Road Panera is weeks from opening, and for Janet Krouse, it can't come too soon.

"I drive by here twice a day and look to see if it's open yet. I swear they said it was going to be open in July. July is almost over," Krouse said as she stared at the unfinished franchise in Pavlovian anticipation.

Actually, they said August. Franchise spokesman Brian Campbell said the westside store should open sometime in late August or early September. Like the Dean Avenue Panera, the business offers more than a dozen varieties of bread baked fresh daily in its stone-deck ovens. Bakers work from 6 p.m. to 10 a.m. daily to create the breads along with 10 types of bagels, muffins, pastries and cookies. But perhaps more important than the food is the atmosphere. The dining room is decorated with tile, natural woods and mute-toned furnishings, overstuffed chairs and sofas peppered around, inviting patrons to sit back and spend the day reading or surfing the free wireless Internet.

"It's not going to be the exact same layout, but it will offer the same menu and be pretty similar,' Campbell said. "We're looking forward to getting up and running.

A year ago, news of one Panera coming to town was enough to please most fans of the chain. Now, it's necessary to have one on each end of town, at least it's necessary for Krouse, who makes the daily trip from her Elida home to downtown Lima job.

"It's too far to go all the way across town. This one will be on my way to work and on my way home. Perfect," Krouse said.

Panera isn't the only retail project on track to open soon. At the corner of Eastown Road and Elm Street, crews have cleared land for what will soon be a Rite Aid store. Company spokeswoman Ashley Flower said the 14,000-square-foot store will open this year.

"Construction is full swing for us. Pending weather, we're anticipating a November grand opening," Flowers said.

On Lima's east side, a four-story, 100-room Courtyard by Marriott is going up on the former site of Ryan's Steakhouse on Greeley Chapel Road. General Manager Dan Peterson said he expects the hotel to be finished by late this year, most likely November. The hotel will be among the first in the country built from the bottom up in the company's new model.

Other changes are in the works for local retail. Owners of the East of Chicago on North Cole Street will be moving around the corner to the former Soup ‘R' Subs location on Robb Avenue. A woman who answered the phone at the restaurant's local office said she was uncertain when the new location would open. And, last month, the Ohio Department of Development approved a $475,000 grant to Allen County, which will in turn loan it to Buckeye Entertainment to build a $2.1 million Chuck E. Cheese restaurant on Elida Road, former home of the Kastaway buffet. One of the owners is former Ohio State and Bengals standout Dan Wilkinson.

Not all the news is good. Wal-Mart officials have postponed indefinitely their plans to build a new Wal-Mart Superstore near their existing Cable Road store. That project originally was scheduled for completion this summer. In April, Sash and Storm closed the doors of its Elida Road business after 31 years.

Down the street, the Tuffy Service Center has posted a sign on its billboard seeking a new tenant. A call to the company's corporate headquarter was unreturned. Right across the street, the Country Square restaurant has closed its doors. Its owners were unavailable for comment.