Chili's, pizza place coming
Jonesboro Sun
Brad McLelland
7/29/2005
JONESBORO -- It's official: A small gray mouse and a large red pepper are coming to Jonesboro.
Bruce Burrow, a principal in the MBC Holdings development firm, announced Friday that Jonesboro will be getting two new restaurants -- Chuck E. Cheese's and Chili's -- and they'll both be placing their homes outside The Mall at Turtle Creek.
The restaurants will occupy two of the mall's five outparcels. Chuck E. Cheese's has secured the outlot on the east end of the mall, directly in front of the upcoming 2-story Dillard's. Chili's will build its restaurant just north of Highland Drive, a few yards off the corner on Stadium Boulevard, Burrow said.
Both establishments should open in March, when the mall itself is slated for its grand opening.
"The Chuck E. Cheese's pad is being prepared right now," the developer told reporters. "We just finalized the deal with Chili's."
Turtle Creek's other three outparcels -- located on the west end of the mall site, forming an "L" at the corner at Highland and Stadium -- could be filled in the very near future, Burrow said.
"We're working with three others and have no reason to believe we won't get those."
Asked how Chili's -- which serves beer -- is responding to Craighead, Burrow said the popular family chain has opened its first dry-county establishment in Conway, and it is "very successful."
"No disrespect to Conway at all, but I think we have a much better market here," he said. "So I think Chili's sees Jonesboro as a fantastic venture."
Outparcels are usually created for free-standing buildings, Burrow said, and they can vary in size. An outlot parcel of comparable size and location to the ones around Turtle Creek can run anywhere from $750,000 to $1 million in value.
The business of leasing outlots can be tricky, Burrow has said, especially given the legal technicalities. That's why developers can't let the cat out of the bag too early, because negotiations with a possible tenant could suffer.
The $100 million mall covers about 78 acres at Highland and Stadium. Developers predict some 900 new jobs and $225 million in annual retail sales when it's fully developed.
The mall's sub-anchors will include Circuit City, Barnes & Noble and Bed Bath & Beyond. In all, the property will host some 100 stores.
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