Toledo’s Westgate Village North breaks ground with Trader Joe’s, abatement

Toledo officials and Abbell Associates broke ground June 10, 2026, on Westgate Village North, moving the long-vacant former Sears property in West Toledo into a new phase with a major tenant list and a public tax incentive already approved.

The City of Toledo announced the project as a roughly $60 million redevelopment of the former Sears site near the Central Avenue and Secor Road retail corridor. Confirmed future tenants named by the city include Trader Joe’s, Dick’s House of Sport, Golf Galaxy, Nordstrom Rack, Sierra, Mission BBQ and Smoothie King.

For shoppers, that means the Westgate area is not just getting one high-profile grocery name. The plan is a broader retail rebuild at a corridor that already draws traffic from West Toledo and the region. For nearby businesses, workers and commuters, the bigger questions are how quickly construction proceeds, when tenants actually open, what jobs materialize and how the corridor handles added shopping trips.

A former Sears site moves forward

City Council records identify the project property as 3450 W. Central Avenue, the former Sears site within the West Toledo Community Reinvestment Area. A Toledo City Plan Commission staff report from September 2025 described the site as about 28.3 acres, zoned regional commercial, with a proposed use as a regional shopping center.

Local reporting by 13abc adds the backstory many West Toledo residents know well: Sears and Elder-Beerman closed in the Westgate shopping plaza in 2017 and 2018, and the building was later leveled, leaving the land empty. The June 10 groundbreaking is the first visible step toward replacing that vacancy with a new retail lineup.

The city announcement also said Abbell Associates is working with The Nikki Group on an adjacent former Elder-Beerman redevelopment, framed separately at about $30 million, with tenants expected to be announced later. That piece is worth watching, but the current confirmed tenant list applies to Westgate Village North.

The tax incentive is part of the story

The redevelopment is not only a private retail announcement. Toledo City Council approved Ordinance O-538-25 on November 18, 2025, authorizing a Community Reinvestment Area real property tax exemption for Westgate Village North, LLC.

The ordinance approved a 100% exemption for 15 years on the increase in assessed valuation resulting from new construction at the site. That distinction matters: the abatement is tied to the added value from project improvements, not a blanket statement that the property has no tax obligations.

Council materials cited an estimated project investment of $50,148,392 for the incentive approval, while the city’s June announcement described the redevelopment at about $60 million. The same council record said the project was expected to create more than 80 permanent jobs with estimated annual payroll of $3,868,103. Those are projections used in the approval record, not a final hiring count.

The approval was also contingent on the applicant entering into a Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement with Washington Local School District to compensate the district for a portion of forgone tax revenue. That makes the school district one of the key public bodies to watch as the incentive moves from approval to implementation.

What residents should watch next

For West Toledo households, the practical upside could include more shopping options closer to home, new service and retail jobs, and additional customer traffic for nearby restaurants and stores. For taxpayers and school families, the tradeoff is the use of a long-term tax abatement to help make the redevelopment happen.

Traffic is another reasonable local question, especially because the project sits near Central Avenue and Secor Road. Public records and the city announcement confirm the corridor location and the scale of the retail project, but they do not document a specific congestion finding. Residents should watch for any site-plan updates, access changes, signal work or construction notices that affect daily trips through the area.

The city’s announcement did not provide store opening dates. The next useful markers will be construction progress, tenant-specific opening timelines, final hiring numbers, the details of the school-district PILOT arrangement and any public updates on the adjacent Elder-Beerman property.

Sources

• City of Toledo Westgate Village North announcement
• Toledo City Council Ordinance O-538-25
• 13abc report on Westgate Village North
• Toledo City Plan Commission September 2025 staff report