Two chain grocery stores are planned in coastal Pender County within six miles of each other, but the economy has kept developers from nailing down construction dates.
Still, developers say they’ll be meeting a demand for retail and for grocery stores in the growing Hampstead-Surf City area.
Site work had begun in Hampstead for a planned shopping center with a Lowes Food Store as its anchor, but work has halted until September or October, said Mike Rokoski, one of the project’s three owners and developers at Hampstead Commercial Properties LLC.
The site is at the intersection of U.S. 17 and Ravenswood Road, on the north corner of the entrance to Olde Point subdivision.
Rokoski said he and his partners, Rodney Williams and Gordon Frieze, all of Wilmington, along with another landowner, took over ownership and maintenance of the private Ravenswood Road extension at the subdivision.
Rokoski said that Lowes agreed to the delay, and he plans to complete financing later. Since work has stopped, the state required the ground to be seeded, he added.
Roger Henderson, a Lowes spokesman, said the company has agreed to lease a 42,000-square-foot store, with an expected October 2010 opening. Lowes could hire about 80 employees. Other tenants include Great Clips, Lee Spa and Nails and Two Guys Grille restaurant, Rokoski said.
Pender County Commissioner David Williams said the development is welcome. “We want all the investment in the county that we can get.”
Meanwhile to the north, the expected May 1 groundbreaking at Surf City Crossings has temporarily stalled.
The planned shopping center on N.C. 210 just off U.S. 17, near the Lowe’s home improvement store, could start in June, said Jeff Baran, a Raleigh developer and partner with Hughes Baran Development. The project is a joint venture with Houston-based Weingarten Realty.
Harris Teeter, its anchor tenant, plans to lease a 48,000-square-foot store at Surf City Crossings. About a dozen stores will add about 24,000 square feet, and outparcels will add another 40,000 square feet. A spokesman for Weingarten didn’t return phone calls seeking comment about prospective tenants.
Harris Teeter expects to open in the fall of 2010 and employ about 90 people, Jennifer Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Matthews-based chain, said in an e-mail.
Henderson said Lowes wasn’t concerned about Harris Teeter. “We felt the market had a population sufficient to support an additional store. And we had achieved good acceptance in New Hanover County and felt that would transfer easily.”
Currently, Hampstead has a Food Lion at the southern U.S. 17-N.C. 210 intersection.
In Surf City, there’s a Food Lion on the mainland on N.C. 50 and an IGA on the island.
Region desk: 343-2389
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