HOWLAND — Meijer, after reports last year the retailer had cooled on the idea of opening a Howland store, is moving ahead on the long-awaited project adjacent to the Eastwood Mall, according to mall owner / operator the Cafaro Company.

In Austintown, meanwhile, the proposed Mahoning Avenue store has been green-lit by the township, but outside of some prep work at the site, little has been done to the land.

At the Eastwood Mall Complex, Meijer will build a 159,264-square-foot store at the site of the former Super Kmart building at Howland Commons. The retailer also will build a 3,376-square-foot convenience store and fuel station in the parking lot near state Route 46.

Demolition of the former shopping store will be done soon, according to a release from the Cafaro Company. It’s expected to take 12 to 14 months to build the Meijer supercenter.

All the permits needed for the project to proceed have been granted by Howland, the release states.

Cafaro Company spokesman Joe Bell declined to comment beyond than what was contained in a news release announcing the latest developments Thursday.

Meijer spokesman Frank J. Guglielmi said the company has a contract for the site but has not finalized details. He did not respond to other questions regarding the Howland and Austintown locations.

Meijer had cooled a bit to the idea of the Howland store, Bell said in January 2020, because of the closure of the former General Motors assembly plant in Lordstown. Cafaro officials kept in steady contact with the company.

“We spent a great deal of time allaying their fears that the economy is not good, that this is a good consumer market, a place where they will be most welcomed, and they seem to understand that now,” Bell had said.

The Cafaro Company confirmed it and Meijer had a deal for the Howland Commons location in January 2019.

The Grand Rapids, Mich., company operates more than 250 supercenters and grocery stores in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin. It has been privately and family-owned since its founding in 1934 by father and son, Hendrik and Fred Meijer.

In its first venture into the Mahoning Valley, Meijer on May 13 opened its highly anticipated store on U.S. Route 224 near Tippecanoe Road in Boardman. The company invested about $20 million into the 159,000-square-foot store that employs more than 300 workers.

Meijer had proposed a 3,300-square-foot fuel station at the location, but its request for a zoning change was denied by the Boardman zoning commission and then trustees, who had the final say.

Earlier this year, Meijer bought a 1-acre parcel at 965 Boardman Canfield Road, presumably for the gas station. The vacant land on the corner of Parkside Drive is where a gasoline station once stood and is less than 1 mile east of the new store.

Meijer hasn’t filed plans with the Boardman zoning department for the land. When the retailer bought it for $415,000 in February, Guglielmi said, “at this time we don’t have any specific plans or timeline for that site.”

In Austintown, Meijer has had the OK to move on the project since 2016. Building plans for the site of the former Austintown Fitch High School and Middle School have been approved.

“Austintown is shovel-ready. Everything is ready to go, and we have opened our arms to the Meijer corporation,” said township Trustee Jim Davis, who expressed a bit of frustration with the lack of communication from the company.

Davis said the township has been told by Meijer the store will happen and is line with the rest of the company’s building projects.