In The News: Ground Broken for Bob’s Market Expansion
By: Brett Dunlap
Parkersburg News and Sentinel
December 15, 2016
BELPRE — Bob’s Market in Belpre is expanding.
From left, Jon Neff, manager of the Bob’s Market Belpre location; Scott Barnitz, co-owner of Bob’s Market and Greenhouses; Belpre Mayor Mike Lorentz; Amy Medley, president of the Belpre Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors; and Belpre chamber executive director Karen Waller are shown at a groundbreaking Wednesday for the expansion of Bob’s Market in Belpre.
Officials held a groundbreaking Wednesday at the site on Washington Boulevard near Neff’s Country Loft.
The old Wards/Holdren Market site will be removed, and new structures would be put up totaling around 32,000 square feet, said Karen Waller, executive director of the Belpre Area Chamber of Commerce.
The project will be done over two phases. The first phase will include 4,100 square feet of retail space and 21,000 square feet for a temperature-controlled garden center with a concrete floor, Waller said. The second phase will consist of a 7,000-square-foot addition sometime in the future.
The expansion helps Bob’s Market simplify their processes and provide more space.
“It is all to serve their customers in a better fashion,” Waller said.
Officials hope to have the first phase open by Easter.
Work is already under way at the site. Company officials are bringing in an existing greenhouse structure from Pennsylvania.
“They are disassembling it to bring it in and install it here,” Waller said.
Bob’s Market is the eighth largest young plant producer in the U.S., Waller said.
“We are very excited,” she said.
This expansion will make Bob’s Market a place that will attract many shoppers coming into the area.
“It will be a real destination for shoppers, in addition to Neff’s Country Loft,” Waller said.
There is a lot of development happening on the west end of town with the Belpre campus of Marietta Memorial Hospital.
“There is a lot of good things happening out there” Waller said.