The state on Thursday approved a $13 million development plan that includes construction of what city officials said is a much-desired Olive Garden restaurant.
The restaurant, along with a Raymour & Flanigan furniture store, Gabe’s discount clothing store and other businesses, will occupy the Delsea Drive location of a Kmart that closed in October 2015.
The project is expected to create more than 100 full-time jobs, city officials said.
Helping the project along is a tax-credit plan approved Thursday by the state Economic Development Authority. The tax credits will be for 30 percent of the project’s eligible costs and will not exceed $3,911,700 worth of state taxes. At the meeting, the EDA also approved an estimated annual grant of $108,795 per year for 10 years for DeWalt Brewing Co. to relocate from Pennsylvania to Atlantic City.
In Vineland, city officials have tried to fill the Kmart site, located across from Cumberland Mall, since the store closed.