Gas station chain files more documents aiming for Kettering Golden Nugget site

GetGo, which has about 20 locations in Columbus but none in Dayton, has filed a zoning permit application that is under review

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Credit: JIM NOELKER

KETTERING — The vacated Golden Nugget Pancake House in Kettering is the focus of continuing plans by a convenience store chain that has yet to open any Dayton-area sites.

GetGo has filed a document involving the 2932 South Dixie Highway site, city of Kettering records show. The chain owned by Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle has submitted a zoning permit application at the site of the Golden Nugget, according to the city.

GetGo submitted a preliminary proposal in 2022, but city officials said it was not formal. The newer plan documents, dated 2023, are being reviewed for compliance with the city’s zoning code, according to Tom Robillard, Kettering planning and development director.

The filing shows a 6,125 square-foot retail store, several fuel pumps and 32 parking spaces on a 1.2-acre lot at the intersection of West Dorothy Lane and South Dixie.

The Golden Nugget, a longtime breakfast staple of the Dayton restaurant market, was founded in 1962 by Steve and Bessie Thomas. It has been closed since the day before the COVID-related statewide mandatory shutdown of dine-in service in March 2020. Owners announced plans to reopen in summer 2022, but that didn’t happen.

GetGo Café + Market locations feature subs, burgers, wraps and breakfast sandwiches, salads, pizza, Philly cheesesteaks, smoothies, coffee and espresso drinks, according to the company’s website. They tout food around the clock.

A store is also planned for West Carrollton. Sites also include surcharge-free ATMs, free wifi, free air for tires, a selection of retailer gift cards and lottery tickets.

GetGo has 271 locations in the U.S. with 110 stores in Pennsylvania, 99 in Ohio, 58 in Indiana, and two each in Maryland and West Virginia, according to ScrapeHero, a data company.

The chain has close to 20 sites in the Columbus area, but none yet in the Dayton vicinity, its website shows.

In January, Kettering Economic Development Manager Amy Schrimpf told the Dayton Daily News that GetGo provided Kettering officials with only a preliminary proposal in 2022.

Schrimpf said GetGo officials last year discussed aspects of a plan that does not meet city requirements. Operating hours, sign placement and access drive locations were among them, she said.

For the project to move forward, she said in January, Kettering would need a formally submitted “viable plan.”

If that were to occur, the proposal would require planning commission approval, Schrimpf said.