With a crowd of standing-room-only and overflow to the outdoors, several hundred people turned out to receive an update on a long-discussed grocery store project at a community conversation at Hesston’s Dyck Arboretum. Brad Heppner, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Beneficient, was the featured speaker of the conversation, during which he gave a long talk about the history of grocers in Hesston, his vision for the store and revitalization of Main Street, before opening the floor to questions. Hesston has been without a grocery store since 2018. “I’m Hesston,” he said. “My family was one of the 26 founding families in Hesston.” Currently, Heppner said the project cannot move forward until Golden Plains Credit Union has a new building.
As of now, the engineers are in the design stage for the relocation of the bank to a corner of Old 81 Highway and Lancaster. One of Heppner’s Beneficient staff members stated they wanted to complete the design of the new credit union by November or December of this year, with the groundbreaking to begin in January or February of 2025. Once the bank is built, then the project can move into specifically grocery-store-related activity. The people in charge speculate the grocery store is probably two years away from opening, which puts the date sometime in 2026. “Right now, our main objective is to build Golden Plains a new building,” Heppner said. Heppner said he thought they were looking at around two years before the grocery store project could be completed. Heppner is the CEO of Beneficient, which will provide funding for the store through the Technology Enabled Fiduciary Financial Institutions Act, passed in Kansas in 2021.
In exchange for a charter to operate within the state, the law requires Beneficient to dedicate 2.5 percent of the value of its transactions for the benefit of the Hesston area, as well as the Kansas State Department of Commerce. The Beneficient Heartland Foundation is to oversee the portion allocated to Hesston. According to information at Tuesday’s event, the money available to Hesston currently totals $13.9 million. This money is in the form of assets and not cash. “As long as the TEFFI makes money, we should be able to get to projects on the other side of the street,” Heppner said. “If there’s someone who wants to open a business, there are buildings available.” White’s Foodliner is still on board to operate the grocery store once it opens. They estimated it would bring 50 jobs to Hesston of both full- and part-time opportunity. The store will offer a mobile app, loyalty rewards and an endowment for 100 low-income families to be able to purchase groceries. Jordan White said their stores can offer as much inventory as Dillons and will have a deli. Heppner also spoke of plans for an underground parking garage with air conditioning, heating and elevators for the grocery store. Parking will still be offered along Main Street, as well, with a revitalized rustic store front on the east side of Main Street. A website will be launched and linked through the City of Hesston’s website so the general public can see the drawings and track the progress of the project.
Source: Harvey County Now
