The Peachtree City Development Authority is working to find a suitable tenant to fill the former “baby” Kroger location at the Peachtree Crossing shopping center.

The volunteer board is working with “all stakeholders” on the matter which includes not only the shopping center owner but also the Kroger Company, which holds a long-term lease on the facility, said Chairman Todd Strickland.

It is not a certainty, however, that any new company would sub-let from Kroger, Strickland added.

Much of the DAPC’s work has been handled by DAPC member Mark Hollums, who has background in real estate and retail issues and has been able to overcome a number of hurdles in the process already, Strickland said.

Strickland said it was “too soon to say” what type of entity might relocate at the facility, but he felt all the stakeholders are working towards resolving the issue. The time frame, at this point, is not clear either, he added.

“There are a lot of moving pieces on this,” Strickland said.

While the former Kroger store might have been one of Kroger’s smallest lowest-performing stores, some residents felt it fit a niche for them. But in the fabric of any shopping center, anchor stores such as Kroger plays a very important role: bringing in customers that might also shop at the smaller stores.

Kroger’s closing has played out on a level unfamiliar to the city, leaving it without a grocery store in the Glenloch Village. As market forces have taken over the city’s development, the city may end up with a second grocer instead in the Wilksmoor (West) Village as a developer intends to put an as yet unnamed grocery store near Planterra Way and Ga. Highway 54 West, which is already served by the Walmart Superstore.

Kroger acquired the property several years ago when it bought the Harris Teeter chain, which was occupying the space at the time. Previously the grocer there was Big Star, which was the first large-scale grocer to open in Peachtree City.

Kroger’s hold on the lease does not bode well for the potential of another grocer taking its place at Peachtree Crossing, as large corporations have historically wielded those leases to prevent competing stores from moving in.