Just caught
this... although a few months late:
Construction has begun for the first phase of a $36 million, 800,000-square-foot shopping center at the northeast corner of South Elm-Eugene Street and Painter Boulevard in Greensboro.
The Shoppes at Brittway is beginning with about 12,000 square feet on 30 acres at a cost of $1.6 million. Greensboro developer Roy Carroll said he expects construction to finish by April, with the first stores opening about 45 to 60 days later.
Carroll said he is working on signing tenants for the nine slots, including restaurants, but couldn't give names yet. He said there will probably be a mix of fast food and sit-down dining, as well as national and local stores. He is doing the project with Granite Development LLC.
Construction on the second, 114-acre phase will start as soon as Carroll signs a few anchor tenants. It could include a movie theater as well as larger national chains (some of which could be new to the area). The entire project will likely take about five years to finish and will range between 600,000 and 800,000 square feet.
Carroll said as the area south of the city has become more developed with a new Wal-Mart and Lowe's, retailers have become more interested in the project. He said he isn't concerned about saturation, as retailers seem interested in being along the interstate between the new Alamance Crossing mall in Burlington and the retail cluster on West Wendover in Greensboro.
Others aren't as so sure. Developer Marty Kotis, president of Kotis Properties in Greensboro, said with all the new retail development in the region, including the new Shops at Friendly, demand for another sizable retail destination such as Brittway could be a decade or more away.
"At some point (Brittway) will be the south node of retail development," Kotis said. "But it's not that far away from High Point Road and the stuff at Wendover and I-40."
