Pair of Dollar Generals proposed for E'town

Construction of a pair of Dollar General stores has been approved by the city of Elizabethtown and will join a newer location on the south end of town if completed.

Neal Cardin

Elizabethtown Planning Commission has approved plans for a new Dollar General Store to be built at 531 West Dixie Ave. where an empty house and vacant lot now exists.

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Neal Cardin

A second new Dollar General Store is expected to be built at 1508 North Dixie Ave. where a vacant building now sits.

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The Elizabethtown Planning Commission approved construction of a Dollar General at 531 W. Dixie Ave. next to Sonic. Planning Director Ed Poppe said the company still needs to complete a grading proposal with the city’s stormwater department and obtain a demolition permit to remove a boarded-up house adjacent to Arby’s.

The store’s business plan calls for roughly 35 parking spaces on the property, he said.

The commission's vote Tuesday follows approval of a separate Dollar General store at 1508 N. Dixie Ave. late last year. Poppe said both stores have been proposed at roughly 9,100 square feet but a timeline for construction has not been released to the city.

Crystal W. Ghassemi, public relations manager for Dollar General Corp., did not provide a construction timeline but said the company has an interest in Elizabethtown properties.

“We are currently interested in a location on West Dixie Avenue, but since we are in the due diligence phase, we have not committed to opening that location,” she said in an email.

Ghassemi did not respond to inquiries about the North Dixie location but said there are several factors considered by Dollar General when seeking out locations for new stores.

“Meeting our customers’ needs is our top priority when choosing store locations,” she said in the email. “We look for places where we can offer customers an easy and convenient shopping choice. We also take demographic trends, competitive factors and traffic patterns into consideration. We know convenience is a major factor in our customers’ shopping decisions as we generally serve customers within a 3-5 mile radius or 10-minute drive.”

The typical Dollar General store is roughly 7,200 square feet and employs six to 10 people depending on need, she said.

There are currently four Dollar General stores operating in Elizabethtown on East Dixie Avenue, Mulberry Street, Sycamore Street and Towne Drive, Ghassemi said.

The News-Enterprise asked if any of the four existing stores inside the city would be closed with the addition of new stores, but Dollar General did not provide a response.

The company is active throughout Hardin County, operating stores in Cecilia, Radcliff, Rineyville, Sonora, Upton and Vine Grove.

Poppe said the proposed buildings are brick structures that will give Elizabethtown some of the most aesthetically pleasing Dollar General stores around.

The company, headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tenn., promotes itself as the nation’s largest “small-box discount retailer” that offers simple and hassle-free shopping with low prices on some of the country’s most popular brands, including Procter & Gamble, Kimberly Clark, Unilever, Kellogg’s, General Mills and Nabisco, according to Dollar General’s official website.

Marty Finley can be reached at (270) 505-1762 or mfinley@thenewsenterprise.com.