Residents of Coweta and Fayette counties frequenting the Sam’s Club and NCG Cinemas at Fischer Crossings or have occasion to travel along the area of Ga. highways 34 and 54 in east Coweta might expect to see the beginning a few changes to the commercial landscape in the coming months.
Leases with T.J.Maxx, Michaels and Home Goods retailers totaling 63,000 square feet are being finalized. Construction is anticipated to begin in February with the openings expected to follow in spring 2013.
Fischer Crossings developer Scott Seymour said Wednesday that the commercial development will take place on the northeast area of the intersection of Hwy. 34 and Fischer Road. The T.J.Maxx and Home Goods stores will share a 52,000 square-foot building while an adjacent building totaling 21,000 square feet will house the Michaels store.
The new construction will be situated on the tract that extends from Fischer Road on the west to the 40,000 square-foot NCG Cinemas on the east side of the property. Specific to the new businesses, Seymour said they will be located west of the recently opened roundabout that is located immediately north of the intersection of Hwy. 34 and Hwy. 54. The buildings will be oriented in a north-south direction and will leave sufficient room for a number of outparcel lots that will line Hwy. 34 down to Fischer Road.
Leases on the three commercial projects are being finalized and, once done, will pave the way for several smaller retailers that have expressed an interest in locating at Fischer Crossings, Seymour said. Those projects will add another 50,000 square feet of commercial offerings, Seymour added.
Seymour said he has received a grading permit for the entire site from Coweta County and is in process of obtaining the required land disturbance permit for the portion of the property where the retail center will be located.
Construction on the Michaels, Home Goods and T.J.Maxx buildings are expected to begin sometime in the February time frame, Seymour said, with all three ready to open in spring 2013.
Area residents are likely familiar with Michaels and T.J.Maxx but that familiarity may not yet extend to Home Goods, owned by the parent company TJX that also owns T.J.Maxx and Marshalls. According to the Home Goods website, the store offers frequent shipments of one-of-a-kind, handcrafted merchandise and high-end designer goods and has 10 locations in Georgia in areas such as northeast metro Atlanta, Athens and Savannah.
Seymour said the development has also obtained a grading permit for a 12,000 square-foot building on the extreme north side of the property, essentially across from the Sam’s Club gas pumps, that will house a new day care location for the Newnan-based StoneBridge Early Learning Center. The facility will be situated between Fischer Road and the future ball fields that will complete the northernmost area of the site.
Seymour said that regardless the current progress with the Fischer Crossings retail development it is nonetheless subject to the ongoing local and national realities of the banking industry.
“It’s still a rocky road but we’ve got our feet under it,” Seymour said.
Kohl’s had previously signed a letter of intent to establish an anchor store across Fischer Road from the 136,000 square-foot Sam’s Club between the upcoming commercial construction and the day care and ball fields but earlier this year postponed signing off on the agreement.
The northeast section of the Hwy.34/Fischer Road intersection was just one of the portions of the overall Fischer Crossings development that was the subject of a 2010 study entitled “The Economic Impact of Fischer Crossing Shopping Center on Coweta County” that was compiled by Dr. William Smith and Dr. Hilde Patrol-Boenheim, both of the University of West Georgia’s Department of Economics.
Pertaining to the northeast section, the study noted the potential for that section of the overall development to have a significant impact for Coweta County in terms of employment. Containing more than 270,000 square feet at build-out, businesses would employ 310 people with wages totaling $6.75 million, the report said.
The study also noted the significant impact for the county’s sales tax and property tax coffers. Viewed as a whole with future build-out on the northeast, northwest and southwest corners of the intersection of Hwy. 34 and Fischer Road, the study concluded that, “If fully operational, property tax revenues are estimated to be $2 million or 6.5 percent of (Coweta County’s) total property taxes. Sales tax revenues are estimated to be $5.1 million or 27.7 percent of current sales tax revenues. Thus, local revenues (sales and property taxes) generated by the operational phase is estimated to be between $5.2 and $7.1 million annually, or between 8.7 and 11.9 percent of total county revenues.”
The first business to open at Fischer Crossings was the Sam’s Club almost a year ago. Next up was the NCG Cinemas in the spring.
While not part of the report, there is yet another factor that figures into the sales tax equation. It is one that comes with the business reality that, when it comes to shopping, dining and entertainment preferences and convenience, county lines have long since evaporated. In that regard, it is undeniable that the Fischer Crossing development is likely to draw significant numbers of Fayette County’s estimated 108,000 residents, including those living less than a mile away in Peachtree City.
That expectation was verified by The Citizen with the opening of the Sam’s Club store in January. A review of vehicles in the parking lot that could be identified by the county of origin, the results showed that 39 percent of the vehicles were registered in Coweta County while 39 percent were registered in Fayette County.
