New Mall gets go-ahead
Jonesboro Sun
12/1/2007
JONESBORO — A local developer’s plan to buy Indian Mall and turn it into a new state-of-the-art open-air shopping center has been given the official green light.
MBC Holdings LLC closed on the property Wednesday and will proceed with design plans to tear the existing structure down beginning this summer.
“We’re now the proud owner of Indian Mall,” said Bruce BURROW. “This is an exciting day for us and an exciting day for Jonesboro. Our goal is to create a shopping experience, and The Shoppes at CaraLand will provide the perfect combination of retail selection and lifestyle amenities to serve as a wonderful complement to The Mall at Turtle Creek.”
MBC Holdings reached a deal to buy the 378,000-square-foot mall in August from Warmack & Co. and plans to invest more than $50 million to create The Shoppes at CaraLand, named for the streets it faces, Caraway Road and Highland Drive. The project is expected to bring several new retailers to the market and create 700 new jobs and generate $70 million in annual sales.
“We are thrilled that Bruce and MBC Holdings have acquired Indian Mall because we’ve seen firsthand that all of their projects are first-rate,” said Cari White, executive vice president of the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce. “Bruce continues to show his commitment to Jonesboro, and we know that The Shoppes at CaraLand will be a regional and statewide attraction.”
MBC Holdings released preliminary architectural drawings of the shopping center, which will feature one major department store, several junior department stores, restaurants and possibly a multi-screen movie theater.
The plans call for demolishing the site and backing the new stores up closer to the Cavenaugh Ford dealership. A larger retailer would anchor the south end of the mall, which would be in an L-shaped configuration. The architecture will be similar to The Mall at Turtle Creek.
The space will also feature extensive landscaping and a 2-story building with about 30,000 square feet of office space on the upper level facing Highland Drive.
Partner Marty Belz said the addition of The Shoppes at CaraLand will make Jonesboro a stronger retail market and potentially create a Northeast Arkansas shopping corridor.
“We strive to bring a quality and diverse mixture of retail and restaurant establishments with our properties,” Belz said. “We exceeded expectations with The Mall at Turtle Creek and believe that The Shoppes at CaraLand will be another successful product for the community.”
BURROW said there is already a lot of buzz in the retail sector about the project, and he doesn’t expect a shortage of tenants.
“We had some tenants we couldn’t accommodate down the road at The Mall at Turtle Creek that will really make this project even more interesting,” BURROW said. “We don’t have anybody signed, but we have a pretty good little black book of tenants that we weren’t able to fit in. Most of these are privately held companies with boards and stockholders, and they don’t like anything released until it clears through them. But everyone is asking what the situation is.”
About two-thirds of the office space is already spoken for as well, he said.
“I think you’ll see service sector tenants, and you might even see a company move in there,” BURROW said.
His top priority, though, is to reach a deal with Sears. The retailer has four years left on its lease, but BURROW said he would like to include Sears in the project.
“I think it would be good for them and the community because they have been here a long time and have been such a great corporate and a good citizen of the community,” BURROW said.
MBC has a backup plan that would allow working around Sears should it decide against staying, he said.
BURROW said the sketches could change a bit over the next three to four months as MBC lines up retailers but expects to have shovels in the ground by summer.
“We’re really pleased with the renderings of kind of where we are leaning,” BURROW said. “But before we can get anything in the ground, we have to get it designed, and part of that design is lining up tenants. You have to go from A to Z in almost every step in between. We have a lot of suspects, and we’re trying to develop them into prospects.”
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