Bottom Dollar store for sale in McKees Rocks

McKees Rocks officials hope the former Bottom Dollar store that is for sale on Chartiers Avenue will reopen as a full-service grocery store.

In a deal announced in November, Pittsburgh area Bottom Dollar stores were sold to Aldi for $15 million, and all Bottom Dollar stores were closed by the end of last month.

Aldi announced March 27 that it would reopen 30 of the Bottom Dollar sites as Aldi locations, but the McKees Rocks store was not one of them.

Aldi has a store at The Shoppes at Chartiers Crossing, the former McKees Rocks Plaza.

“I don’t think we expected another Aldis to be built a mile up the road,” Taris Vrcek, executive director of McKees Rocks Community Development Corp., said.

But the development group is hoping for a store that would be comparable to what Bottom Dollar had provided the Sto-Rox area — an expanded fresh produce section, providing access to healthier foods within walking distance.

Mr. Vrcek said 40 percent of McKees Rocks-area residents do not have access to an automobile and must walk or take public transportation to do their grocery shopping.

The community development corporation is working with the Allegheny County executive’s office “to find an owner that will enable it to remain a full-service grocer,” Mr. Vrcek said.

The two groups are asking Aldi for “a few months to look for potential users for this site,” he said.

Grocery store woes in the area have been ongoing for years.

Many of those from the nearby Pittsburgh neighborhood of Sheraden who had been traveling to McKees Rocks to shop are now going to the Save-A-Lot in the Crafton-Ingram Shopping Center since Bottom Dollar closed.

Sheraden Market, a former Foodland, closed in 2008, leaving that area without a local grocery.

Signs on the boarded-up location announce the spot will become a Family Dollar.

In June, the Shop’n Save in Kenmawr Plaza in Kennedy closed when the store was bought by Giant Eagle, which has stores nearby in Kennedy and Crafton-Ingram shopping centers.

Big Lots closed its McKees Rocks location early this year, citing decreased business.

“Big Lots was a tremendous loss, as is Bottom Dollar,” Mr. Vrcek said. “Everyone is feeling the squeeze from [construction on] West Carson Street.”

A project to rebuild West Carson Street has limited traffic to one lane inbound since August 2013, and utility-related delays have pushed the August 2015 projected completion date to April 2016.