Excavation underway at former Kmart site
♦ Stores in the shopping center are slated to be open by October 2020.
Ledbetter Properties has closed on the acquisition of the former Kmart property in Rome for $6 million. The property was purchased from Romekim L.P., a Delaware investment partnership.
“You factor in all of the site work and demolition and it still gets real expensive,” said Robert H. Ledbetter Jr.
Excavation work is underway at the site of the old Kmart service station where the gas tanks are being removed. Demolition of the service station and the building adjacent to it will be next in the line of work before the actual Kmart building comes down.
Ledbetter said the company does not have a specific time frame for the demolition work yet and has not retained a general contractor for the construction of the new East Bend shopping center.
“It’ll start looking like something over there early this fall,” Ledbetter said.
The shopping center will feature three primary anchor tenants along with upwards of 20 other tenants.
A list of prospective tenants provided to a potential tenant being courted for the development included Kohl’s, Five Below, Old Navy, Fazoli’s, Texas Roadhouse, Discount Tire, Chipotle, Panda Express. None of those stores have a presence in the market.
At least one of those prospective tenants made inquiries into the demographics of Rome several months ago, specifically requesting information about restaurants in close proximity to the intersection of Hicks Drive and Turner Mccall Boulevard.
Ledbetter has said he was
leaving the choice for each of the individual tenants to announce their plans to locate in Rome.
The largest of the anchors would encompass approximately 36,200 square feet. The other two are slated to be in the 12,500-square-foot and 8,100-square-foot range. Those numbers are subject to change. The site plan indicates that 370 parking spaces would be required and 524 are presently on the site plan.
The site plan includes five outparcels, several of which are expected to be new restaurants to the Rome area.
“We expect to turn over the pad sites, the building sites, about the first part of spring,” Ledbetter said Wednesday. Stores in the shopping center are slated to be open by October of 2020, well in advance of the Christmas shopping season.