Home improvement company eyes Sedalia for store

A home improvement retailer has plans to build a store here, and its managers hope to create a larger shopping center with restaurants and other businesses.

Menards — a home improvement store that also carries appliances, pet products, lawn and garden supplies and groceries — plans to build a 162,000-square-foot building on West U.S. 50 near the Main Street intersection.

“We are currently working with the city staff and county and state officials on the necessary approvals for our project,” wrote Scott Nuttelman, a real estate associate with Menards, in an e-mail to The Democrat. “Assuming everything goes as planned, we are hoping to start construction by mid to late summer and be open by some time in 2009.”

The stores typically employ 150 to 200 people.

The Sedalia Planning and Zoning Commission approved a preliminary plat submitted by Menards officials, and the City Council set an annexation hearing at 7 p.m. June 2 for the property on the western edge of town. The company requested the annexation of the 68.65 acres.

At the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting May 7, a representative from Menards’ engineering firm said he had been working on plans to improve the intersection at Main Street, Oak Grove Lane and U.S. 50.
Menards officials have extra land that they hope to use in creating a shopping center.

“We have not determined any specific users of the extra property at this point, but we often have a number of new restaurants, smaller retailers and other commercial users that like to locate next to our stores,” Nuttelman wrote.

Menards is a family-owned company with 240 home improvement stores in 11 states. The Wisconsin-based business has a store in St. Joseph and another under construction in Columbia.

Mayor Pro Tem Susan Daniels said the store would “be a great addition,” and could result in extending the borders of the city. She said the city would also benefit from the sales tax generated by the store and increased traffic.

“I just think it’s a plus all the way around,” Daniels said.