One local business owner is speaking out against a grocery store coming to Muncie.
Dave Ring, owner of the Downtown Farm Stand, created a petition to stop development of Fresh Thyme, a chain grocery store focusing on organic food.
Ring clarified that he did not create the petition to stop competition by a free market. Instead, he wants to call attention to what he feels are unfair advantages created by the Muncie Redevelopment Commission.
“If you’re not willing to defend your niche, the city can walk all over you because they have agendas,” Ring said. “You have to be like a lobbyist. You have to be your own biggest advocate.”
Fresh Thyme, which just received zoning clearance and will benefit from up to $110,000 in infrastructure improvements, is slated to open on McGalliard Road between Chick-fil-A and CaRite in 2018.
If the petition reaches 1,000 signatures, Ring will deliver it to Todd Donati, director of the Muncie Redevelopment Commission, Mayor Dennis Tyler and nine people on the Muncie City Council. As of now, the petition has reached 797 signatures.
Donati said Ring’s claim of unfair competition is “absolutely false” and the commission only plans on improving roads and installing a stoplight near Fresh Thyme — construction that might not use all of the funds allotted.
Donati said building the supermarket will create 114 construction jobs and Fresh Thyme will benefit Muncie and Ball State communities by "keeping food dollars within the city, combating the food desert and creating jobs."
RELATED: New grocery store to bring jobs, capital investment increase to Muncie in 2018
The Memorandum of Understanding, which is a formal agreement among Lauth, the construction company and the city of Muncie, states that Fresh Thyme will create 80 jobs total, 40 part time and 40 full time, nine of which are management-level positions that make as much as $35,000 a year.
Donati interprets the memorandum to mean the average pay of the 40 full-time jobs is $35,000 a year, which includes nine management-level positions. This, in addition to the pay of the 40 part-time jobs, Donati said, would make a $2 million annual payroll.
“It’s clear as day,” he said.
Michael Hicks, the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State, is doubtful that Donati and the Muncie Redevelopment Commission have the expertise to determine the benefit of retail for an entire community.
“Why is government picking which grocery store is providing food for people? Does Muncie city government or the redevelopment have that sort of technical competence? And the answer is hell no. Not even close to possible,” Hicks said.
Hicks also questioned Fresh Thyme’s reasoning in expanding to Muncie and questioned why a “high-end” grocery store would locate to a "not-so-affluent" part of the city and what effect it will have on stores like the Downtown Farm Stand.
“I think it’s likely that a business that has been here paying taxes for 20 years is going to go out of business because of this,” Hicks said. “So Dave and Sara Ring are going to have to find jobs somewhere else and the property value, that’s going to drop.”
Ring and Donati met to discuss the future of the Downtown Farm Stand in the wake of the new Fresh Thyme, but no compromise or agreement was reached.
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