If you live in Elkview, your errands, your weekend walks, and your dinner options all funnel through the same short stretch of Crossings Mall Road. That corridor is quietly reorganizing itself this year, and the changes tell a bigger story than any one press release. The K-Mart that closed in 2019 is about to hold the largest non-Marketplace Kroger in the region. The Elk River Trail is inching closer to a paved connection through Clendenin. And the calendar of small-town weekends between Big Chimney and Queen Shoals is filling in again. Here is what that looks like on the ground.
The Kroger Move Is a Neighborhood-Reshaping Event
Most residents already know Kroger is moving. Fewer know how big the swing is. On June 9, 2026, a groundbreaking ceremony officially kicked off construction on a new and expanded Kroger store at Elkview Crossings Mall at the former K-Mart location. Kroger is moving several doors down the shopping center from its current location at 223 Crossings Mall Road to 201 on that same street.
The numbers matter because they set a baseline for what your grocery run is about to feel like.
| Current Elkview Kroger | New Elkview Kroger | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 223 Crossings Mall Rd | 201 Crossings Mall Rd |
| Size | About 33,000 sq ft | About 82,000 sq ft |
| Prior tenant of the space | Existing Kroger since well before 2019 | Former Kmart building, empty since the store's closure in 2019 |
| Target opening | Early 2027 |
For context, the new Elkview footprint is being pitched as the biggest non-Kroger Marketplace location in the region, which puts it a step below but in the same conversation as the 122,000 square feet Marketplace that opened in South Charleston on June 24. In practical terms, that means Elkview shoppers are about to get a garden center, a broader fresh department, and an anchor tenant that reclaims a building most locals have watched sit dark for seven years. It also means the walk from produce to pharmacy inside your own grocery store is about to get a lot longer.
What The Trail Actually Looks Like In 2026
The Elk River Trail gets described a lot of ways online. The honest version, for someone deciding whether to bike it this Saturday, looks like this. As of September 1, 2024, the trail meanders 52 miles along the Elk River, with an additional 18-mile rails-with-trail section running along Buffalo Creek. Portions of the trail are still under construction and, when finished, will be 73.3 miles long.
The gap you should know about is the middle. The 22-mile section from Hartland to Queen Shoals is under construction, but another 4.5-mile section is open from the Queen Shoals Trailhead to a point south of the Clendenin Trailhead, with a one-mile section paved from the Clendenin Trailhead north. If you have been assuming you can ride straight from Elkview up to Gassaway, you cannot yet. What you can do is string together shorter, scenic pieces from the trailheads at Frametown, Strange Creek, Duck, Ivydale, Dundon, Hartland, Queen Shoals, and Clendenin.
Two things worth knowing before you go:
- The paving is accelerating in Clendenin. The Town of Clendenin publicly received an ARP (American Rescue Plan) Grant from the Kanawha County Commission to pave 2.2 miles of the Elk River Trail in downtown Clendenin. That is the piece most Elkview residents will actually ride, because it is the closest continuous surface.
- The Elk River Trail is open for use by walkers, hikers, runners, cyclists and horseback riders. Class 1 and Class 3 e-bikes are also allowed.
The trail is not just recreational infrastructure. The Elk River Trail Foundation's Façade Program will help business owners improve the outdoor appearance of their properties to encourage tourism and economic development associated with the Trail Towns along the Elk River Trail and the Elk River Water Trail. If the Kroger move is the retail story, this is the tourism story, and Clendenin sits at the seam between them.
The Weekend Calendar Has Filled Back In
For a stretch of years after 2016, the summer calendar in this part of Kanawha County felt thin. That has changed. Three anchor events are worth putting on your fridge.
Clendenin Jeep Jam & Bronco Bash. The 4th Annual Town of Clendenin JEEP JAM & BRONCO BASH is happening on Sat 22 Aug 2026 from 1:00 PM onwards at 103 First St, Clendenin, WV. Fourth annual is the tell here. This is not a pop-up, it is becoming an institution.
Clendenin Summerfest. The event has evolved in a way that matters. Summerfest was formerly called the "Celebration of the Flood." It was originally designed to recognize the anniversary of the 2016 flood that killed 23 residents. While remembering the tragedy is a key element of the ongoing event, the festival now celebrates the recovery efforts that have taken place within the community since 2016. A typical program runs from noon to 10 p.m. with music, games, craft vendors, food vendors and live entertainment beginning at 1 p.m.
Clendenin Homecoming Festival. Multi-day, downtown, with a parade route along Maywood Avenue and a rubber duck race that ends at the Clendenin Bridge. If you have kids in the house, this is the one to plan around.
The point of listing these together is not that Elkview has festivals. Every town has festivals. The point is that all three sit within a 15-minute drive up Route 119, which turns Clendenin from "the next town over" into your extended weekend footprint.
Where Locals Actually Sit Down
Elkview's dining scene is small enough to describe honestly. Tripadvisor lists 16 Elkview restaurants, and once you strip out the chains along Frame Road, the shortlist gets short fast. A few places worth knowing by name.
Tapatío Grill & Cantina is the newest full-service option and the one with the most interesting backstory. Located at 305 Crossings Mall Rd, it was established in 2024, and the owners came to Elkview having previously worked at La Carreta in Summersville, now bringing their passion for authentic Mexican flavors to Elkview, hoping to make this community our home. The kitchen runs Monday through Thursday 11:00 am to 9:00 pm, Friday and Saturday until 10:30 pm, and Sunday until 8:30 pm, which is later than most sit-down options in town.
Elkview Chinese Restaurant at 5113 Elk River Rd is the takeout backbone, open from 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM Monday through Sunday. In a town this size, seven-day dinner hours are not a given.
Beyond that, locals will point you toward Benny's for a bar you can actually settle into for a while, and toward Hidden Valley Kitchen for baked goods if you can catch it. The Pizza Hut at The Crossing Shopping Center and the Burger King at 2155 Frame Rd fill the fast-food gaps. That is close to the entire universe of options within Elkview proper. For a bigger night out, most residents drive south into Charleston or east up the river toward Clendenin.
Why These Three Threads Belong In The Same Post
Read separately, a Kroger expansion, a trail paving grant, and a fourth-annual Jeep event look like a normal news week. Read together, they describe a single shift.
The old K-Mart parcel had been empty since 2019. The Elk River Trail was a nice idea with big gaps. Clendenin's summer identity was still catching its breath after 2016. What is happening in 2026 is that all three of those things are moving in the same direction at the same time. A grocery store more than doubles in size and reclaims a shuttered anchor. A federal grant paves the piece of trail that connects downtown Clendenin to the rest of the corridor. A grassroots event hits its fourth year and starts to look like a fixture.
If you own a home along the Elk River between Big Chimney and Clendenin, that is the context to hold in your head. The half-mile of Crossings Mall Road you already drive through every week is becoming a bigger anchor for a longer corridor, and the towns to the north are quietly linking themselves back into it.
Making The Most Of This Fall
A few practical suggestions before the leaves turn.
Ride the Clendenin-to-Queen Shoals segment now, before the crowds show up next spring once the newly paved section settles in. The 4.5 miles are already open. Pack a lunch from Tapatío or Elkview Chinese on the way through.
Put August 22 on the calendar for the Jeep Jam. Even if you do not own a Jeep, the downtown Clendenin street closure turns First Street into the kind of afternoon you cannot replicate on any other Saturday.
Stop into the current Kroger while it is still there. The 223 Crossings Mall Rd store has been the community's grocery for a generation. Early 2027 is not that far away, and the new footprint will be a different kind of building.
And if any of this makes you look around your own street and start wondering what your home is worth in a market where a shuttered K-Mart is about to become the largest Kroger in the region, that is a reasonable thing to want to know. Faith Realty & Co., LLC lives in this corridor, watches these shifts closely, and can walk you through what they mean for your specific block. Reach out any time for a straight answer or a free home valuation. We would be glad to help.
