By Mark Wineka
Salisbury Post
Salisbury’s retail horizon promises to brighten considerably with a Charlotte developer’s plans for a regional power center at Julian and Klumac roads next to Interstate 85.
A site plan now on file with the city of Salisbury calls for 358,535 square feet of retail and six outparcels along Klumac Road on the 45.7-acre tract.
The biggest tenants will be a 130,953-square-foot home improvement store and a 68,890-square-foot department store.
But the plans also pencil in spaces for six other major tenants, a “mini-major” and shops, all served by more than 1,300 parking spaces.
Collett & Associates of Charlotte and the Wallace family of Salisbury are partners in the venture. The Wallace family patriarch, Leo Wallace, started assembling land in this area in the mid to late 1950s after determining where I-85 would be located.
Michael D. Smith, a principal with Collett & Associates, said Tuesday he has “a lot of commitments” for the retail center, but he wants the project to clear the city’s various hurdles first before giving specific names.
Artist renderings of the retail center given to the Salisbury Planning Board Tuesday included a Best Buy, but Smith said it was only a representation of what the center might have.
Still, Planning Board members wanted to know whether Smith could share with them the tenants he had in mind. He declined.
“I think you’ll be pleased with them all,” he said.
For now, the working title for the Salisbury project is Wallace Commons.
Collett & Associates is a commercial real estate firm specializing in retail projects in several states, including the Atlantic coast from Virginia to Florida and into the Midwest.
The company has, for example, a long list of retail developments in North Carolina, and some of the tenants in these small to large centers include Home Depot, Lowe’s, Super Target, Kohl’s, Belk, Best Buy, Food Lion, TJ Maxx, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Omega Sports, Old Navy, Pier 1 Imports, Staples, Rack Room Shoes and others.
Some of its nearby projects have included Mooresville Festival, Northcrest in Charlotte, High Rock Landing in Lexington and Broad Street Station in Statesville.
Retail centers comparable to the size tabbed for Salisbury would include the Southridge Shopping Center in Asheville and Heritage Crossing in Wilson.
Smith said he has been working primarily with Victor and Lee Wallace in Salisbury, but his company has been looking at Salisbury closely for almost five years.
In the past, Collett & Associates had expressed interest to Rowan County in developing 50 acres of its 200-acre Summit Corporate Center for a retail center off Julian Road (on the other side of I-85), but the county eventually passed, wanting to keep the whole industrial park intact.
At one point, Smith accompanied Rowan County commissioners on a tour of Manchester Village in Rock Hill, S.C., to show an example of a large retail development next to an industrial park.
Collett & Associates also has been in contact with the Salisbury-Rowan Economic Development Commission.
Salisbury Planning Board approved the site plan for Wallace Commons Tuesday, and it will head to Salisbury City Council.
The property also is being subdivided into three parcels, and each one is being considered on its own in terms of parking and landscaping requirements.
Smith said the division into three parcels doesn’t necessarily mean the center would be developed in phases.
The site will have three entrances off Klumac Road and sidewalks throughout. The property is mostly wooded now, but it presents some challenges to the developers because of topography and power transmission lines that run through the site.
Besides the home improvement center and department store, the plans call for “major tenants” in stores of 30,000, 26,000, 25,000, 20,350, 20,100 and 17.037 square feet.
The outparcels range in size from .2 acres to 1.82 acres.
Signs for the development will be tackled separately, Zoning Administrator David Phillips said.
No timetable for the center’s construction has been given.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or mwineka@salisburypost.com.