Development of The Mall at Turtle Creek is about to move beyond site preparation to actual brick and mortar.
Memphis Business Journal
Jane Aldinger
9/10/2004
Site work has begun on the $100 million Mall at Turtle Creek, which will establish Jonesboro’s regional presence as a prominent retail trade area.
Making up the mall’s development team are Marty Belz, president and chairman of Peabody Hotel Group and president of Belz Enterprises; Bruce Burrow, Belz-Burrow Development Group principal and Owensboro, Ky.-based David Hocker and
Associates, Inc.
The 730,000-square-foot mall will be anchored by Dillard’s, J.C. Penney and Target. The Dillard’s and J.C. Penney stores will be relocations from Jonesboro’s existing Indian Mall, but the Target store will be a new tenant to the area.
The mall sits on the northeast corner of Stadium and Highland in Jonesboro and is within one mile south of Arkansas State University and within one mile north of I-40.
The developers also plan to build a 75,000-square-foot center across the street from the mall, but plans for that have not been solidified yet.
The mall’s trade area includes about 409,342 people, and Belz says there is a natural demand for this regional mall.
Also boosting the mall’s potential is Memphis’ growth patterns. Retail development has continued to move eastward in Memphis, and the Wolfchase Mall, for example, has added nearly 30 minutes travel time for an Arkansas shopper, Burrow says.
“This part of the country was blessed from the fact that Memphis moved East of the river,” Burrow says. “That gave us an opportunity to shortstop the traffic that would continue on to Memphis.”
A redevelopment district created through Tax Increment Financing boosted the possibility of the mall’s development. The city of Jonesboro and the Mall at Turtle Creek are the first in Arkansas to take advantage of the TIF legislation passed in 2001.
Burrow says about $6 million in net proceeds from the TIF district have flowed to the project, and the developers have used that money to fund infrastructure improvements and to rechannel a drainage ditch creating a downstream retention area.
That infrastructure aspect has also taken about 520 homes out of the flood plain saving the homeowners the costly insurance of owning in the flood plain. The TIF financing has also channeled $108,000 to the Jonesboro school district, Burrow says.
“The (TIF funds) helped close the gap we had in this project’s financing,” Belz says.
Jeff Chastain, public relations director for the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce, says there have been two other TIF filings since the Turtle Creek project’s approval including a proposal to redevelop the Indian Mall.
Other large tenants signed include Circuit City, Bed, Bath and Beyond and Barnes & Noble. Those stores typically sit on mall outparcels, but Belz says the Mall at Turtle Creek will be unique in housing those tenants within the mall itself in hopes to draw more traffic through the enclosed mall area. Outside entrances will allow customers direct access from the parking lots. There will also be an outdoor breezeway lined with restaurant patios and a carousel.
Seeking to blend two traditions, Burrow says that design element will combine the traditional enclosed regional malls with the more current lifestyle center design.
Birmingham, Ala.-based CMH Architects, Inc., is designing the project.
“It’s an idea that came from a collage of information,” Burrow says. “We did a hybrid that is almost a ‘lifestyle mall center,’ if there is such a thing. It’s a design that allows the best components of each of those entities.”
The mall will be the crown jewel of retail in Northeast Arkansas, and Jonesboro mayor Hubert Brodell expects the development to jump-start other development in the area.
“These people have proven in the past that they do first-class work, so I don’t expect anything but a first-class operation,”
Brodell says. “That type of development is eye-catching, and it’s contagious because it gets others to do the same thing.”
Brodell says he is particularly pleased with landscaping and design work on the facility. Betz says the mall will feature tile and marble floors and clear-storied glass throughout the building.
“This will be the premiere shopping for that area,” he says.
Jonesboro has been in a growth phase for several years, but the retail growth has been slow to follow. Industrial, educational, financial and medical growth have all contributed to the city’s economy, and the Mall at Turtle Creek should balance the different segments of growth.
“What we had lacked was the retail, and we believe this mall project is going to fast close that gap,” Burrow says. “And it keeps some of our sales tax dollars at home.”
He estimates the city of Jonesboro and Craighead County loses about $1 million in sales tax dollars annually to outside markets including Memphis and Little Rock.
Chastain also says the mall will stabilize the city’s growth.
“The retail growing is a good offset to (the industrial growth),” he says. “It’s going to give us a lot more credibility as a retail trade center for our region. It’s a whole new plateau and is a feather in anybody’s cap and especially ours.”
The mall’s location is also at one of the city’s heavier-traveled intersections, Chastain says. Liberty Bank of Arkansas has recently opened a prominent new
headquarters building on Highland/Stadium intersection’s south corner.
“That intersection within the last two years has come from nothing, and I’m impressed with the way that intersection is developing,” he says.
J.C. Penney, Dillard’s, Target, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Circuit City and Barnes & Noble will occupy the majority of the mall’s space. About 230,000-square-feet remain and 190,000-square-feet of that is currently in a committed lease phase.
“We feel really good that this center will be fully leased when it opens,” Belz says.
Another huge economic boost for the area will be the project’s job creation. Chastain says the mall itself is expected to create about 900 new jobs for the city and an additional 600 temporary jobs throughout the mall’s construction phase.
Belz and Burrow have worked together as Belz-Burrow Development Co. and have primarily focused on strip centers and hotels. Burrow says Hocker joined the project because of the company’s mall expertise and its relationships with mall
anchor tenants.
Hocker developed the Mall at Barnes Crossing in Tupelo and is also former chairman of the International Council of
Shopping Centers.
“This was a project that was a mall development, so David has been our partner for a couple of years and now we’ve
had a crash course in mall development,”
Burrow says. “In this business, it’s relationships, and David has the relationships with the other department stores.”
The mall’s site work has already begun, and the J.C. Penney and Target should open in September 2005 followed by the
Dillard’s and the balance of the tenants by March 2006. Turtle Creek’s developers are confident the mall will bring something new to a trade area that has been underserved.
“For a town the size of Jonesboro, there won’t be anything nicer in the country,” Burrow says.
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