Four new businesses are expected to open in the South Park Shopping Center at the same time when the new Publix supermarket opens.
Martin Smith, director of project leasing for Retail Specialist of Birmingham, said their company is working to fill the retail shops next to the new Publix supermarket.
“The interest is very high,” Smith said. “We are really encouraged by the interest.”
He said two tenants have signed leases, and the Birmingham company is in negotiations with two other possible tenants.
Smith said Retail Specialist could not release the names of the new tenants yet, and it could be August before the names of businesses locating at the new shopping center, located at 2040 Martin Street South, are released.
Smith said once Publix opens, the company hopes to start Phase 2 of South Park Shopping Center, which will include the construction of an additional building along the south side of the shopping center parking lot.
He said the new building will provide an additional 9,000 square feet of retail space at South Park Shopping Center.
“We are encouraged by the interest,” Martin said Wednesday. “We feel like it’s going to be a very successful shopping center.”
He said there are still two out-parcels still available.
Bojangles’ Famous Chicken N’ Biscuits restaurant is already in operation at one of the three commercial lots that front U.S. 231 in the South Park Shopping Center.
A Publix official said last week that the new 45,000 square-foot Publix supermarket is expected to open in August or September.
The upscale supermarket anchors South Park Shopping Center and is located at the back or the east side of the 13-acre commercial development.
The new Publix store will employ about 100 workers. The store will have the traditional grocery, dairy and frozen food departments. The store will have a bakery, full-service meat and produce department, deli and a full-time pharmacy with a drive-thru window.
Publix is privately owned and operated by its 148,500 employees with sales in 2010 reaching $25.1 billion.
Publix currently has 1,036 stores scattered across Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama.
Contact David Atchison at datchison@dailyhome.com.
