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Giant Closeout Sale! DELHI & SKYTOP LOCATIONS ONLY
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018 ❚ BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS ❚ PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
‘Public scrutiny could be significant’: Forest Hills’ deal with Doug Evans Jeanne Houck Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
The Remke sign in front of its Skytop Pavilion, Anderson Township, location. SHEILA VILVENS/THE ENQUIRER
Anderson Twp, Delhi Remke Markets to close USA TODAY NETWORK
Remke Markets in Anderson Township and Delhi are closing their doors permanently. The grocer announced the news to patrons Nov. 3 in an email. “We don’t make these decisions lightly. Our priority is to continue to serve our customers and our associates while remaining competitive,” the message read. “Please know that we are working with our associates to transition them to our other stores.” Last day for the two Remke locations is Nov. 30. The Anderson Township market is located in the Skytop Pavilion, a retail shopping center structure that was proposed to be razed as part of a zone change for a multi-family development approved for the site earlier this year,
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according to Anderson Township Assistant Administrator for Operations Steve Sievers. The closures will reduce the number of Remke Markets locations in the Greater Cincinnati area to seven. The two closings are the most recent in a series of closures by the grocery chain. Since 2015, Remke has closed three area stores including one in Fort Mitchell earlier this year. In 2017, Remke Markets sold to Findlay-based company Fresh Encounter Inc. The grocer had 10 stores at the time of the sale. Also last year, Bill Remke announced his retirement after 60 years with the family-owned business. He was the third-generation CEO. On Thursday, Nov. 8, final markdowns began on the current inventory at Delhi and Anderson Township Remke Markets.
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The new transportation center for the Forest Hills Local Schools is on four acres of property on Round Bottom Road in Newtown. It includes this office building, pictured Nov. 1, 2018, where Revolution Fitness says it will be operating until Dec. 1. JEANNE HOUCK/THE ENQUIRER
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Sheila Vilvens Cincinnati Enquirer
When the Forest Hills Local Schools paid Doug Evans $2.15 million for property to use as a bus hub, it came with four acres of land, five buildings – and a legal dispute between the businessman facing federal fraud charges and a tenant who wouldn’t leave. The board of education already was under fire by some for agreeing in June to pay B.E.E. Holdings Limited Partnership, a group of which Evans is president, more than twice the market value set by the Hamilton County auditor for the property at 3652 Round Bottom Road in Newtown and nearly three times what B.E.E. Holdings paid for it in March. Then, Forest Hills found itself running up legal fees representing itself in a Hamilton County Common Pleas Court case where Revolution Fitness, the tenant at the property, is accusing B.E.E. Holdings of a laundry list of claims unrelated to Evans’ federal case, including unjust enrichment, fraud and breach of a 10-year contract signed in 2014. “Should a first right of refusal been offered to the company, the partners would have purchased the property as per the terms of the lease,” Mary Beth Knight, president of Revolution Fitness, said. B.E.E. Holdings and Forest Hills wanted the fitness center out, saying it owes tens of thousands of dollars in back rent and unpaid utilities. A trial is scheduled in June 2019. But lawyers for Revolution Fitness and Forest Hills have negotiated an agreement, just approved by Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge
Curt Hartman, in which Revolution Fitness has dropped its court claims against the school district and agreed to leave Round Bottom Road by Nov. 30. Forest Hills was already using the back of the property to park buses as Revolution Fitness operates out of the office and gymnasium building in front. The court case continues with B.E.E. Holdings and Revolution Fitness as parties. A shared history Forest Hills has a history of doing business with companies associated with Evans – including with what is probably his most prominent, Evans Landscaping at 3700 Round Bottom Road in Newtown – for services such as landscaping and storage. The relationship appeared to be briefly threatened in June 2017, when an indictment was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati accusing Evans, Evans Landscaping and company Vice President of Operations Jim Bailey of creating a fake company to land public minority construction and demolition contracts. The defendants were set to stand trial Tuesday, Nov. 13, on charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and failing to report felonies. In an email exchange obtained by The Enquirer through an open records request, Ray Johnson, then Forest Hills’ director of business operations, wrote Evans’ attorney, Zachary Peterson, on June 9, 2017, that, “In light of the story in the Enquirer, we will need to retract our request for space. I can't put the board in a bad light and open to possible criticism.”