The rise in vacant retail space

in Fayetteville in recent months has caught the attention of city officials,

and it could be a hot topic among members of the City Council in the near

future.

The city attorney is already studying what other municipalities have done

and what Fayetteville could conceivably do, and a report will be forthcoming

at a City Council meeting very soon, according to City Manager Joe Morton

and Mayor Kenneth Steele, who spoke at length with The Citizen about the

retail problem last week.

Also, it will likely be a topic at the upcoming city retreat, scheduled

for mid-November at Callaway Gardens.

Major stores such as Kmart and Roberds have announced closings in Fayetteville

in the past few months. Roberds filed for bankruptcy protection earlier

this year, while Kmart decided to close a number of Georgia stores, with

the Fayetteville location being one of three metro Atlanta sites getting

the axe.

These announcements by large companies often catch the city by surprise

the same way they do the general public, and filling the empty spaces

they leave behind can be challenging.

Another cause of empty retail space is the construction of new buildings

such as what has risen on the Fayette Pavilion grounds in the past few

years. Existing stores often vacate their old surroundings for newer digs

as soon as they are available.

Wal-Mart relocated from the Fayetteville Corners shopping center to its

new Fayette Pavilion location a couple of years ago. Its old space lay

dormant for about two years before Hobby Lobby moved into a portion of

it earlier this year. At

the same intersection, the same building that houses the doomed Kmart

has lost a Belk retail store to a new Fayette Pavilion site, with several

other longtime tenants such as Bookland also gone by the wayside.

Even within the relatively young Pavilion itself, transience seems to

be the norm. Old Navy has moved about three doors down from its original

location, apparently to a larger space, while the Tanner's restaurant

was sold within the last few months and that space is now closed.

According to city officials and at least one corporate spokesman, getting

into these established vacant spaces can be surprisingly difficult.

Michael Velsmid, president of WestPoint Stevens Bed, Bath & Linens,

wrote in a recent letter to The Citizen of his company's fruitless efforts

to locate a store here. His letter was in response to an article on this

subject that appeared in The Citizen two weeks ago.

"WestPoint Stevens has been seeking space in several of the vacant

Fayetteville stores to no avail; one space has been vacant for two years,"

he wrote. "We have prepared leases with comparable rents only to

be rejected by the current leaseholder. Our site search agents have also

been met with inertia."

Velsmid went on in his letter to urge the city to make the revitalization

of these sites a top priority.

Morton and Steele acknowledged that they had heard Velsmid's comments

and were attempting to reach him to discuss the matter further, but were

unsuccessful so far.

One major stumbling block, as far as Fayetteville officials are concerned,

is the fact that it is often in the property owner's best interest to

let the site remain vacant.

When a major tenant such as Kmart or Wal-Mart moves to another location,

it is often in the middle of a multiyear lease that must still be honored

Corners was not to end

until 2003, according to one report. Property owners can therefore continue

to receive huge rent checks regardless of whether the site is being used.

Also, a retailer may often have a contractual stipulation that no competitor

move into the site upon the original tenant vacating the premises.

So, ironically, the same right of a land owner to develop his or her property

also gives him or her the ability to let it sit empty, and there is little

the city can do about it. Asked if Fayetteville can take legal steps to

force a property owner to act in some way concerning his or her property,

Morton and Steele both said while they have not yet heard from the city

attorney on the matter, such an action is not likely to hold up legally

unless a health or safety issue is involved.

"In America, people have property rights," said Steele. "A

lot of logical-sounding solutions would never stand in court."

Morton added that the city can sometimes use incentives to encourage developers

to fill these spaces, or even go so far as a moratorium on new development,

but that's about it.

The Market, the teen club that was recently shut down by law enforcement

officials amid a storm of controversy, is another example of the retail

situation.

That site, a former grocery store, was vacant for some 18 months until

it reopened this year. Its owner, like most of the sites mentioned, lives

outside the state and can be difficult to even reach with an inquiry,

let alone strike a deal on a property lease.

Steele said that many of these absentee owners are content to simply let

the rent checks keep coming in without worrying about how the vacancies

make faraway Fayetteville look. "It's a cash cow," he concluded.