O’FALLON, Mo. — Aldi is proposing a significant expansion of its warehouse here as the discount grocer sees its footprint rapidly growing in Missouri and surrounding states.
The 469,000-square-foot facility is set to grow by 97,000 square feet as the company eyes hiring dozens of new employees to work at the warehouse over the next several years.
“This expansion is due to a lot of the stores that they are building are coming out of this distribution facility — new stores in Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas,” said Brandon Harp, president of Civil Engineering Design Consultants, a St. Louis-based firm hired by Aldi to design the expanded warehouse and enlarged parking facilities.
In March, Aldi announced plans to add 800 stores nationwide — including nearly 330 stores in the Midwest — by December 2028 as part of a $9 billion expansion plan. Then in September, the company announced that it was hiring 13,000 employees nationwide to work at its stores and warehouses.
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Aldi first approached O’Fallon about expanding its operations here two months ago, said city spokesperson Tony Michalka.
In O’Fallon, city officials say the company plans to initially hire 30 employees, but Harp told O’Fallon Planning & Zoning Commissioners earlier this month that the company is looking to create a third shift of workers as the warehouse moves to operating 24-hours a day. This move would create between 50 to 100 jobs, Harp said.
The current warehouse was built in 1990 and is located west of Highway 79 and south of Salt River Road. Over the years, the number of delivery trucks “stacking” or parking bumper-to-bumper alongside Highway 79 or Salt River Road as they wait for the facility to open has increased. This has raised a number of safety concerns, according to officials.
The proposed site plan, which zoning commissioners have approved, calls for rerouting traffic into the warehouse, an expanded entrance and the creation of additional delivery truck parking spaces that should prevent any trucks from having to park along exit ramps or the shoulder of Highway 79.
“Aldi has done a tremendous job as far as handling the problems that have come up with stacking these trucks,” said zoning commissioner Mike Nunnery. “This plan far exceeds what was needed. This is a great addition to our city.”
The zoning commission approved the proposed site plan during its meeting on Nov. 7, clearing the way for the grocery chain to seek building permits to begin construction.
Aldi did not respond to interview requests. City officials did not respond to questions about the project’s cost or timeline.
