After years of planning, delays and speculation, Kroger is finally set to begin work on a new store in Arlington, breaking ground on the location Thursday, July 6.

Residents and town officials have waited about seven years for Kroger to start the $22.3 million project at 5270 Airline Road. Construction on the rest of The Shops at Arlington Village began, and other areas between the Milton Wilson Boulevard-Airline Road junction and the Interstate 40 corridor developed. But the Kroger site, through COVID-19, sat empty.

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“It’s been the No. 1 question I hear from residents,” Mayor Mike Wissman said of Kroger’s future. The mayor said talks with the supermarket chain became frustrating because town officials couldn’t get a commitment from Kroger regarding its specific plans and timetable.

But even without the solid future, Kroger’s purchase of the site helped spur development in the area. Wissman said Arlington has almost $1 billion in new or committed development coming to the area.

“It basically changed the landscape of the town when Kroger picked that site back in 2016,” Wissman said.

The $100 million mixed-use Providence Place is in early development behind the Kroger site, and the Baptist Arlington Emergency Department along with the medical office complex opened just south of the Kroger site on Airline earlier this year. A variety of commercial projects are also underway and planned across the street from the new Kroger, and the up-to-$700 million Hawthorne mixed-use project was approved for a large tract across from Baptist’s facility in March.

“There are many factors considered when opening a new store,” said Michael Cristal, Kroger’s Delta Division president. “Our team believed this was the best time to move forward on the new build as the Town of Arlington continues to grow.”

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Plans include a 103,402-square-foot multi-department store and a nine-pump fuel center. The new store will be approximately 2.5 times larger than the existing Arlington Kroger at 7615 U.S. 70. Construction of the new store is expected to be completed next summer.

Kroger would not comment on whether the existing Arlington location would stay open once the new store is completed or not, saying they would share that information once confirmed by their corporate office.

“This has been a long time coming, and Kroger has had to overcome challenges to get to this point, not the least of which was the pandemic’s disruption of the supply chain,” Arlington Chamber of Commerce Director Tonia Howell said. “The residents of Arlington will be well served by the larger store, and I will be so happy that their tax dollars can stay and work in our community.”