By MONROE ROARK
mroark@TheCitizenNews.com

Retail growth continues in Fayetteville, mainly along the Ga. Highway 85 and Ga. Highway 314 corridors, as existing retail centers add tenants and new projects break ground.

Construction is a common sight at the huge Fayette Pavilion, with a number of buildings now underway. Among the retail outlets set to open in the coming months are Kohl’s, a Wisconsin-based department store chain; Dekor, a home decorating and renovation store, and Casual Corner bath and body shop.

Kohl’s currently has no stores in Georgia, with the closest being in North Carolina. But new stores will soon open here and in Stockbridge.

The Uptown Square shopping center, across Hwy. 85 from Fayette Pavilion, has seen the unveiling of Barnes & Noble as well as Linens & Things in the past four months. Also open there are Mail Boxes Etc. and AT&T Wireless stores.

A Chili’s restaurant is under construction in the front corner of the Uptown Square parking lot, near the highway.

Fayette Promenade has been approved for its initial development and will begin construction soon. Plans are for a Kinko’s printing center and a Simmons Bettersleep store to open there in early 2001, with more to be announced later.

A little farther south, Walgreen’s has received approval of its development plan for a new drug store near the intersection of Hwys. 85 and 314, just a few hundred feet from the relatively new Eckerd location.

The most noteworthy would-be addition to Fayetteville in recent months is one that is not coming anytime soon — Hooters. A few hundred residents came out recently to protest the restaurant chain’s plans to open next to Eckerd and Applebee’s near Banks Road and Hwys. 85 and 314. But road improvements, not moral issues, stopped that plan, as JDN Corp. is lagging in fulfillment of its development agreement with the city regarding that site.

A retail center is being planned for a site just south of the Courthouse Square, next to Waffle House and near the Kroger shopping center, but that plan has been tabled by the city recently along with a few other proposed developments in the area.