A GROCERY STORE
FOR HESSTON!

Here is how progress is being made to bring a
great grocery store to our great town.

The Vision

The new full-service grocery store will be on the east side of the 100 block of Main Street. Plans call for the store’s front to have a façade reminiscent of historic buildings that occupied Main Street over 100 years ago. The project is fully privately funded with donations from the Beneficient Heartland Foundation, which was established with an initial donation of over $6.5 million from Aurelia and Brad Heppner. Mr. Heppner is a sixth-generation family member raised in Hesston and the surrounding rural area.

The Vision The Vision
Chef

Planned Store Features

Taking into account our community’s needs and wishes for an expansive, accessible , affordable grocery store, planned features include:

  • 20,000-square-feet of space on the street level
  • Potential for 2,500 customers per week
  • Potential for 50 employees
  • Delicatessen-style restaurant
  • Bakery
  • Fresh-cut meat with on-site butcher
  • Fresh produce, locally sourced whenever possible
  • Fresh-cut prepackaged fruits and vegetables
  • German food specialties
  • Pick-up and delivery options for online shopping
  • Bridge and truckload buying to promote affordable pricing
  • Cityzone Temporary Price Reduction programs
  • Potential for 2 additional 3rd party retailers
  • Senior-friendly amenities including special shopping times, bright lighting, easy accessibility

Parking Plans

Ensuring ease of parking has been a priority throughout the project. Parking features include:

  • Climate-controlled, weather-friendly garage that keeps shoppers out of the elements
  • 3X the area’s current parking capacity
  • Parking capacity exceeding town ordinances
  • Bright lighting and easy store access
  • Parking for golf carts
  • Free golf cart/EV charging
  • Easy-in, easy-out up/down ramp access
  • Wide parking spaces

Choosing the Operator

White’s Foodliner, which operates grocery stores in Kingman, Linsborg, Lyons and five other Kansas communities has signed a memorandum of understanding to occupy and operate the new grocery store. Pat and Jordan White are Kansas-based grocers who run a world-class family business in operation through three generations since 1953.

Additional factors in choosing White’s included:

  • Selection: Average rural store SKU count (number of items) 8,000 to 10,000 – WHITES FOODLINER average SKU count per store 22,000 (wide selection)
  • Jobs: 360 employees and growing every year
  • Convenience: Offer a robust mobile app, loyalty rewards program along with online shopping and coming soon- shipping options
  • Vision: Pride themselves as “students of the business” and constantly adapt to market changes
  • Expertise: Expansive corporate team to help in all departments and all communities to help relieve stress on local employees and managers
  • Security: Future succession plan in place to ensure security for the team

Choosing the Location

To facilitate the selection of the most advantageous site and to ensure best practices for rural small-town economic development were being utilized, multiple reports and studies were consulted from sources including:

  • United States Department of Agriculture
  • United States Environmental Protection Agency
  • Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
  • University of Wisconsin

Key insights from these reports include the importance of:

  • Revitalizing and restoring a community’s Central Retail District to be easily accessible for pedestrians, bikers and drivers of golf carts and cars
  • Promoting improved foot traffic and retail economics between multiple centrally located individual retailers during a shopper’s single visit to the Central Retail District while providing ample and safe parking
  • Locating within a half-mile of as many residences as possible to improve access for residents with no to low access to a vehicle (the only 1 of 6 USDA food access categories which downtown Hesston does not meet)

Areas Considered

Meeting a Need

Development Milestones

2018

Weaver’s Grocers closes, leaving Hesston, for the first time in its history, without a single grocery store.

2019

Chamber of Commerce commissions a professional study on bringing a new grocery store to Hesston.

2022

BHF commits to Hesston Grocery Store: Beneficient Heartland Foundation (BHF) is organized with an inaugural contribution of approximately $6.5 million facilitated by Aurelia and Brad Heppner and an initial mission to bring a new full-service grocery store to Hesston.

Grocery Store Task Force formed: Initiates evaluation of previous business studies, potential operators and site selection options. (West side of Main Street had been pre-selected as potential site.)

Site Selected: Task Force pivots to select east side of Main Street as future home to new grocery store.

1st Property Acquired: Old Hesston Food Market acquired.

2nd Property Secured: Commitment of Owners of The Nest to sell their Main Street location upon relocation to renovated old Hesston Food Market.

3rd Property Secured: Commitment of Beneficient to gift its business conference center.

Operator Commitment Secured: Memorandum of Understanding reached with White’s Kingco and the City of Hesston to bring the White family to Hesston as operators of a new full-service grocery store.

2023

4th Property Secured: Memorandum of Understanding reached with Golden Plains Credit Union and City of Hesston for BHF to acquire its building and two lots on the east side of Main Street after relocation of its branch credit union.

5th Property Acquired: Acquisition of suite at Old Town Center to be used for the future relocation of the Garden Church offices.

6th Property Acquired: Acquisition of Garden Church Offices for new grocery store location.

Relocation launch: The Nest opens for business in the newly renovated previous old Hesston Food Market providing a new, larger retail space.

The Nest Property Acquisition: Acquisition of The Nest retail store on east side of Main Street for new Grocery Store location.

Vision presented: Updated concept drawings and artists renderings of the interior and exterior of the proposed grocery store presented for feedback.

2024

7th Property Acquired: Acquisition of land from the King family (Lancaster & Knott) to be used for the future relocation of Golden Plains Credit Union.

8th Property Acquired: Acquisition from the City of Hesston (Lancaster & Knott) to be used for the future relocation of Golden Plains Credit Union.

Relocation Launch: The Garden Church Offices and Youth Center opens in its newly renovated location in Old Town Center providing new and more usable square footage.

Relocation Plans: Engineers and architects engaged to produce the construction plans for the new build on Lancaster and Knott for Golden Plains Credit Union.

Community Update: BHF Director Brad Heppner presents an update on the grocery store project to the Hesston community in the Prairie Pavilion of Dyck Arboretum.

Great things are in store
for Hesston!

The Beneficient Heartland Foundation

The Beneficient Heartland Foundation (BHF) is the source of leadership, conceptual designs and funding for the Hesston grocery store project.

Learn More

The Hesston Grocery Store Committee

This information is provided by the Hesston Grocery Store Committee, whose membership is composed of civic leaders including Gary Emery, Denise Goevert, Brad Heppner, Phil Regier and Greg Woodyard.