Starbucks starts construction on new Russell Centre store in Kentucky

Starbucks has started construction on a new cafe at Russell Centre in Russell, Kentucky, adding another store in a retail corridor that serves the greater Russell and Ashland market and reaches across the Ohio River into Ironton, Ohio.

The shopping center framed the project as another step in its continued growth and leasing success. Russell Centre is anchored by Kroger and Lowe’s Home Improvement, a mix that gives Starbucks the kind of built-in foot traffic the company often wants when it opens inside a larger retail cluster rather than in isolation.

For Starbucks workers, the new location is less about ribbon-cutting than about the churn that comes with opening day. A new store creates hiring activity, transfer opportunities for baristas and shift supervisors, and a chance for current partners to move into a different commute or a different store format. It also means a compressed period when managers have to line up training, equipment placement, floor plans and scheduling at the same time, before the store settles into a routine.

That matters because Starbucks is not expanding everywhere at once. In September 2025, the company announced a $1 billion restructuring plan that included closing some North American coffeehouses and laying off about 900 corporate employees. At the same time, Starbucks said it planned to resume store expansion in fiscal 2026, signaling that growth would continue in some markets even as the company pulled back in others.

The Russell Centre buildout fits that split-screen strategy. Reporting on the restructuring said Starbucks expected its company-operated North America store count to fall by about 1% after accounting for openings and closures, which means the company is still making a deliberate bet on some sites while pruning others. In practice, that leaves store-level employees carrying the weight of both stories: a company that is tightening costs on one side while still asking managers to staff, train and launch new cafes on the other.

In Russell, the new store adds another Starbucks to a trade area that already pulls from both Kentucky and Ohio. For employees, it is another reminder that the company’s future is being built store by store, with growth and retrenchment happening at the same time.