Westgate Village North breaks ground in Toledo with Trader Joe’s, tax break

West Toledo’s long-vacant former Sears site moved into construction on June 10, when the City of Toledo and Abbell Associates marked the groundbreaking for Westgate Village North at Secor Road and Central Avenue. The project is being framed as a new retail center for the Westgate corridor, not as an opening-day announcement.

The biggest consumer takeaway is Trader Joe’s. The city said the grocery chain will be the anchor tenant, and the official tenant list also includes Dick’s House of Sport, Golf Galaxy, Nordstrom Rack, Sierra, Mission BBQ and Smoothie King. For West Toledo shoppers, that mix could eventually shift where people buy groceries, sporting goods, apparel and quick meals.

Why the site matters

The redevelopment is happening at 3450 W. Central Avenue, the former Sears property that has long been one of Toledo’s most visible vacant retail sites. City officials are casting the project as a way to bring new foot traffic and commercial activity back to the Westgate district.

The city called Westgate Village North a $60 million redevelopment. Council records from November 2025 estimated the project investment at $50.1 million and said it should create more than 80 permanent jobs with an estimated annual payroll of $3.87 million. Those figures are projections, but they show the scale of the redevelopment now underway.

The incentive behind the project

Toledo City Council approved the project in November 2025 as a Community Reinvestment Area real property tax exemption. In plain terms, the ordinance authorizes a 15-year, 100% property tax exemption on the increase in assessed value created by the new construction.

The approval also requires a Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement with Washington Local Schools, which is meant to compensate the district for part of the tax revenue it would otherwise lose. That makes the project more than a private retail buildout; it is also a policy choice about how Toledo uses incentives to push redevelopment on a long-empty site.

What is still unknown

The main unanswered question is timing. The city and local reports confirmed the groundbreaking and tenant list, but no opening date has been announced yet.

For now, residents should treat Westgate Village North as a construction project in progress, not a place to shop yet. Even so, the announcement matters for West Toledo because a Trader Joe’s anchor and several national retailers could eventually affect shopping patterns, hiring and traffic around Secor and Central.

Sources

• City of Toledo announcement: Westgate Village North tenant announcement and groundbreaking
• Toledo City Council ordinance O-538-25: Westgate Village North incentive and PILOT
• WBCL: Westgate Village North redevelopment and Trader Joe’s debut