No news is likely bad news for those wishing and hoping for a new Aldi Supermarket in Lincoln Township/Stevensville. Social media has been abuzz lately with lots of speculation about the announced Aldi project on Red Arrow Highway, next to Tractor Supply.
While the plans for a store there were announced before the pandemic, there’s been no progress beyond purchase of the property and a building permit that was never acted upon, according to Lincoln Township officials.
Several readers have communicated with MOTM, suggested they’d been told by ‘someone who knows’ that the food store construction would soon be underway. So, we asked Aldi corporate offices for an update.
What came back to us from Aldi’s public relations spokesperson Eli Schnieders was a PR person’s version of “No comment… don’t bother us!”
“At this time, we have don’t have any information to share about a potential new store in the Lincoln Township area. As soon as there are any updates about stores in the area, we will be sure to reach out.”
Generally, if a retailer has concrete plans for a new store in an area, they will respond with positive, ‘teasing’ comments, looking ahead at serving the area and vaguely giving a target date–at least the year when the store may open. Lacking that, it would appear that the Stevensville location has either fallen off, or far down Aldi’s priority list of planned new stores. Their Benton Harbor store, near the Orchards Mall, and several others in the region remain open.
Meanwhile, we know from township records that Aldi or their developer did purchase the land along Red Arrow Highway. Their building permit will expire in the Spring of 2022 and nothing has been done to extend it for a realistic construction timetable. Stay tuned!
