| F'ville retail vacancies:
Who's serious about filling spaces?
In your article of Aug. 23, "City
struggles with major retailers' financial woes," you cited the many
vacant retail spaces in Fayetteville with few options to attract new tenants.
I seriously have to question the amount of effort Fayetteville, the real
estate agencies and the former tenants are giving to fill the many vacant
retail stores. "Big box" and high-density retailing moving to
Peachtree City will only exacerbate the problem.
WestPoint Stevens Bed, Bath and Linens has been seeking space in several
of the vacant Fayetteville stores to no avail; one space has been vacant
for two years. We have prepared leases with comparable rents only to be
rejected by the current leaseholder. Our site search agents have also
been met with inertia.
WestPoint Stevens has 50 stores throughout the United States and Canada.
Eight more will open this year. Five are in Georgia. I would venture a
guess that most of the people reading this letter have shopped in one
of our stores and are familiar with our well-known brands.
Earlier this year we opened a store in a previously vacant 30,000-square-foot
supermarket, with much enthusiasm from the Columbus, Ga., community, as
a catalyst of redevelopment for their high retail vacancy section of town.
Last week, Columbus announced significant additional retail commitments
for the same area, and we renewed a long term lease.
It may be too late for WestPoint Stevens, as we have located an alternative
location. It is, however, not too late for Fayetteville, if you decide
to set the revitalization priority necessary to
reduce your retail vacancies.
Michael J. Velsmid President
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