ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 5, 1995 TAG: 9512050054
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
IT WAS A LONG TIME coming, but the grocery chain's planned development of the old Mick-or-Mack store is finally moving along.
When Mick-or-Mack closed the doors of its Brambleton Avenue store in 1986, Harris Teeter took over the lease and promised to open a revamped store in about six months.
Harris Teeter President Ned Dunn acknowledged Monday it has taken a little longer than planned - nearly 11 years.
He said demolition of the old building is to start in 10 days, with the chain's new supermarket scheduled to open in the spring of 1997.
"Words almost fail to tell you how excited we are about this," Dunn said.
Tim Gubala, Roanoke County's director of economic development, who has shepherded the project through about seven years of delays, shares Dunn's enthusiasm.
There was property acquisition to deal with - Harris Teeter bought three properties for its new building site; storm water management questions from nearby residents to contend with; a change in developers; and a Colonial Avenue road improvement that was originally supposed to take part of the Harris Teeter lot, Gubala said.
Meantime, Harris Teeter, which held the lease, allowed the old building to be used for after-prom parties and flea markets, uses that weren't living up to the potential of a building at that location, Gubala said.
On the county's tax rolls, "this was an unproductive piece of property," Gubala said.
The 59,000-square-foot store Harris Teeter is planning should change that.
The county anticipates between $300,000 and $400,000 in tax revenues from the grocery store in its first year of business.
"Did you get that? $400,000," Roanoke County Board of Supervisors Chairman Fuzzy Minnix said. "That certainly dwarfs the $200,000 investment we made to get it here."
The county's $200,000 incentive package, which it will recoup in the store's first year of operation, includes $124,000 toward drainage improvements and $76,000 toward water and sewer connection fees. The county estimates that the necessary upgrades in storm water management will cost more than $200,000. Harris Teeter will foot the remaining bill.
Gubala said the storm water issue was raised by residents who feared the store would mean increased flooding in an area that was damaged by the flood of 1985.
The new store, which will employ about 220 people, will nearly double the size of the Harris Teeter at Southwest Plaza. It also will be significantly larger than the company's largest Roanoke Valley store, at Towers Shopping Center. That store has about 34,000 square feet, said Ruth Kinzey, manager of corporate communications for Harris Teeter.
Harris Teeter regional director Jerry Clontz said the extra space will mean an increased selection for customers.
"We can just about double everything you'd have at Towers," Clontz said.
Cave Spring shoppers can expect the wine consultant and prepared foods section that Towers boasts, and possibly a dry cleaners, coffee shop, bakery with fresh doughnuts and video rentals.
The plan calls for a new 10,722-square-foot Revco to share the shopping center with Harris Teeter. Because of a merger announced last week between Revco and Rite Aid, it is not clear which of the drugstores will assume the lease, said Julia Passmore of Ruddick Investment Co., a sister company of Harris Teeter.
Harris Teeter, based in Matthews, N.C., operates 140 grocery stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Map by staff.by CNB