J. C. Penney to fill vacant ‘big box’


		Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005

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J. C. Penney to fill vacant ‘big box’

This J.C. Penney in Auburn, Ala., is like the one the company will build at Banks Crossing on Ga. Highway 85 North in Fayetteville. The new generation of free-standing stores
is modeled after the success of
Kohl’s and other retailers.
Photo/Beth Snipes.
____________________________

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

One of Fayetteville’s biggest commercial eyesores is about to get an infusion of life that includes a major overhaul, thanks to a surprise new tenant.

AIG Baker, the Alabama company that owns Banks Crossing on Ga. Highway 85 North at Banks Road, has lined up retail giant J.C. Penney to take over the empty big box space abandoned by Kmart nearly five years ago, sources say.

And another unnamed retailer is in negotiations to lease the nearby vacant Belk building, which most recently was home to SteinMart.

The prospect of eliminating two empty “big boxes” cheers city officials, who’ve been trying to address the problem of abandoned storefronts for years.

“J.C. Penney fits in. Rather than growing out, we would prefer to grow and redevelop some of our underutilized land in the city first,” said Mayor Ken Steele. “J.C. Penney will be a nice addition and it will fit that redevelopment to a ‘T’.”

According to development plans on file at Fayetteville City Hall, J.C. Penney will gut the 97,200 square-foot former Kmart and add 10,800 square feet, extending it into the present parking lot.

The old Kmart Garden Center along one side of the building will be removed, and a new facade will wrap the building on three sides, said City Planner Jahnee Prince. That means shoppers coming out of Lowe’s next door will no longer be looking at a barren cinderblock wall, she said.

Added Steele, “As we grow, we hope to raise the standards so that our community is headed uphill, and we are striving to do better.”

The Kroger store in Banks Crossing was remodeled about two years ago, and now the rest of the retail center will be given a facelift to make it conform to current city codes that weren’t in place when it was built in 1987.

For example, Prince said, the unadorned asphalt parking lot that stretches away from the old Kmart and Belk stores will be torn up and reconfigured, with new landscaping islands, accent lighting and tree buffers installed by the developer. New sidewalks will also go in along the street.

“They’re going to do a lot of really neat things with the landscaping,” Prince said. “It’s definitely going to be an improvement.”

Still to be decided is what to do with the giant clock sign that fronts the highway. It no longer conforms to codes either, Prince said, but the city may let the owner remove the signage and leave the tower as an architectural monument.

The work will require that the site be rezoned from its current C-3 (highway commercial) category to C-4 (high intensity commercial), which didn’t exist 18 years ago, Prince said. The Planning Commission is expected to approve the formality at its Jan. 27 meeting, she said.

A spokeswoman at the company’s headquarters in Plano, Texas, wouldn’t confirm the plans. But it is expected that the 108,000-square-foot Fayetteville store will be among the first in a new generation of free-standing J.C. Penney locations inspired by successful competitors like Kohl’s.

The concept was introduced last year as part of a five-year “turnaround” plan for J.C. Penney, which last summer sold its Eckerd drug store chain to CVS for $5.6 billion.

The new stores are brighter with wider aisles to accommodate shopping carts, but carry all the name brands and services found in a traditional mall store, including workplace fashions, handbags and fine jewelry.

Most also feature full-service hair salons and day spas, as well as a service department for handling the shipping and receiving of catalog orders.

Of the 11 prototype stores opened last year by J.C. Penney, the nearest is in Auburn, Ala. Another new store was recently announced for Newnan.

The nearest J.C. Penney mall store is at Southlake, and the company also has stores at Arbor Place in Douglasville and Stonecrest in South DeKalb. A store at Shannon Mall closed several years ago.

There has been a free-standing J.C. Penney in Griffin to the south for many years, and the J.C. Penney Outlet Store remains in Forest Park, though the company closed its huge catalog distribution center there about two years ago.