Kroger officials project a March 1999 opening for the company's newest south metro store at Ga. Highway 85 and Ramah Road in Fayetteville.

Brad Wood with Kroger's real estate division says that the company is "very excited about having another store, for the south side of Fayetteville." The 55,696-square-foot grocery store will have a video-media center, health foods, service meat and seafood, delicatessen, bakery, floral and "all the other departments shoppers expect at Kroger," Wood added. Wood said the 28-acre shopping center represents "probably the largest tract of land we've built on so far."

The company recently opened a store at Spivey Crossing on Hudson Bridge Road in Henry County. Wood said that Kroger's Banks Crossing store on the north side of Fayetteville between Hwy. 85 and Ga. Highway 314 will remain open.

"It wouldn't make sense," he said, "to close a successful store on the north side of town just because one is opening on the south side. The congestion in the middle of town is just too much. This way shoppers on both sides of Fayetteville have a nice Kroger to go to."

Developers for the shopping center on south Hwy. 85 say the large complex will include service-oriented businesses and possibly office space. Jim Ezell, executive vice president of Retail Planning Corp. of Marietta, noted that "two nice restaurants" will be in the "end caps" at the Kroger Center. Los Toribios, a local Mexican restaurant chain, already is signed, he said, and negotiations are ongoing with another restaurant for the locations which include "outside patio dining."

Total shopping center area is 93,000 square feet including the Kroger store, Ezell said. "Out parcels" may be sold for office buildings, gas stations, video stores, or other uses, he added.

"We want to work with some local businesses too," Ezell said, "to locate in the center. It's not just the chains we want, but to give an opportunity for Fayetteville business people to move here." The company can be reached at 770-956-8383.