Ribbon cutting for new Martins Supermarket as Elkhart revitalizes downtown

ELKHART, Ind. – A ribbon-cutting celebration for a new Martins Supermarket in downtown Elkhart opened Wednesday morning. The opening is part of the cities River District development series. A project aimed at revitalizing the Elkhart community.

“We are rebirthing an area of Elkhart that allows it to have a vibrancy and livability that traditionally does not exist here,” said Elkhart mayor Rod Roberson.

Located on Jackson Boulevard in the heart of downtown the store opening is part of a $40,000,000 development plan to revitalize the district. It is another big step for the city as they look to improve housing options, recreation, and shopping for all residents.

In 2019 the city opened the Elkhart Health and Aquatics facility, along with the Stonewater at Riverwalk Apartments within the River District. Today shopping was highlighted with the Martins ribbon cutting. A celebration, that fits right into Elkhart Chamber of Commerce President Levon Johnson’s vision to a better Elkhart.

“Elkhart’s always been a strong community, great families, a great place to work, live, and play but you never want to settle and just rest on that so the continuation of building an even better community that has the amenities that people want as you look a drawing people to this area, either to visit or live you want to make sure you have those things that are important to folks,” said Levon Johnson.

The next step for the city is to continue growing by building relationships in the retail and housing communities. Relationships Mayor Roberson believes is vital to take Elkhart into the next generation.

“The growth of a city is the ability for it to innovate and generate itself and become the kind of community that not just keeps people here but actually attracts others, and that’s exactly what we want to do in Elkhart, and this kind of anchor, this new opening of this grocery store is the first step along the way of doing this here.

Martins is helping out with that growth by donating $15,000 to local organizations as part of the Elkhart Community Care Fund.