The commercial strip shopping centers in Fayetteville between Courthouse Square and the Fayette Pavilion are becoming known as the "forgotten zone" as tenants move out in favor of newer, nicer shopping centers north and south of town.

But city officials say they haven't forgotten about the area, and have been looking for ways to keep the area from turning into a slum. But their options are limited, they say.

City Councilman Al Hovey-King, chairman of the city's Downtown Development Authority, said officials are looking into expanding the authority's area of influence to include the older shopping centers.

"It will probably be late summer before we can consider whether we want to pursue that," he said, adding that the group, which works with the city's Main Street program to redevelop the historic area close to the Courthouse Square, might not have the legal authority to take on new territory.

If city leaders do decide to expand the authority, redevelopment won't take place overnight, he said. "You're talking about a three- to five-year commitment," he said.

Linda Altic, who recently closed her Clothes Closet dress shop in the rapidly emptying Fayetteville Corners shopping center, said small businesses in the area suffer from heavy-handed city regulation, competition from newer, larger stores in the new shopping centers, plus the loss of traffic as major anchors like Wal-Mart and Winn Dixie move out to the newer centers.

City redevelopment efforts have been mostly focused on the historic downtown area, she said. "They have focused far too much attention on what they perceive as the downtown area, and how much money does that generate?" she said. "Rents are still astronomical," she added.

Hovey-King and other city leaders point out that Wal-Mart is still paying the rent on its 50,000-sq. ft. vacant store under a multi-year lease, leaving the shopping center owners with no incentive to reduce rent and entice a new anchor tenant. "There's not much we can do about that," he said.

In fact, lowering rents might be the wrong thing to do, said city manager Mike Bryant. "It's important who replaces a tenant that moves out," he said. "What is the quality? Do you have the same clientele, the same traffic?"

New rules for redevelopment of older shopping centers may yet turn the tide in the forgotten zone, officials say. The new rules provide tighter restrictions for new development, but the older centers are exempt from those rules (see related story).

"This ought to provide so much incentive to redevelop spaces like the old Wal-Mart instead of going out and chopping down a bunch of woods and putting up a new shopping center," said city planning director Jahnee Prince.

Officials said they'll continue to look for ways to stimulate redevelopment in the older centers, but in the end, said Hovey-King, the market place will rule.

"Rent is still the single biggest thing, other than the cost of goods," he said. "And rent is not cheap in Fayetteville."