Nearby business owners are welcoming the possibility of an additional Hy-Vee store on Lincoln Way in the Lincoln Center.

Carliane Beer, manager of So-Fro Fabrics, said if the Hy-Vee plans go through, Hy-Vee officials will buy the building where So-Fro Fabrics is located and demolish it to make way for the grocery store.

Beer is concerned people think that So-Fro Fabrics is closing or moving out of town.

“We’re not closing,” she said. “Hy-Vee will build a new store for us at the south end of the strip mall, near Cyclone Liquor.”

Business owners said though they welcome the new store, it will likely create traffic problems at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Lincoln Way.

“There are plans to extend Highway 69 through the DOT parking lot which would help the congestion on Lincoln Way,” Beer said.

The extension of Highway 69 would increase the amount of traffic entering the Lincoln Center from Third Street, which lies to the south. “With the extension, there will be two good ways to enter the Lincoln Center,” Beer said.

Ames Public Works official Paul Weigland said Hy-Vee officials have just started to work on a traffic impact analysis, which they will later submit to the city for review.

“Hy-Vee will complicate access to the Lincoln Center but we do not know of the specific problems yet,” he said.

Businesses owners say it’s a matter of trade-offs.

“We would get an increase in business, but traffic itself would become a problem,” said Joe Montgomery, general manager of Ames’ Village Inn.

“More traffic signs would be needed in the parking lots in order to control the traffic.”

Bill Zook, manager of Target, said he would welcome a Hy-Vee to the Lincoln Center.

“It will be good for everybody. This will create the opportunity for people to shop for everything in one place.”

Weigland said the city has already received a call from a resident who lives west of the Iowa Department of Transportation.

The resident was concerned about the increase of traffic on East Fourth Street, which runs south of the Lincoln Center.