Hendersonville Center Drawing Interest from Major National Retailers

By Brian Forrester
December 8, 2003

Developers of Hendersonville's Glennbrook North retail center have landed a major national tenant and are eyeing at least two others.

An adjusted site plan for Glennbrook North approved this week by the Hendersonville Planning Commission identified Ross Dress for Less, Petco Animal Supplies and Staples as retailers planned for the project.

Staples has signed a lease for 20,388 square feet and negotiations are ongoing with other retailers for a 14-acre site between a planned Kroger grocery store and Kohl's department store. AmSouth bank and Panera Bread have site plans approved for stores on out-parcels.

A spokeswoman for Ross Dress for Less would not confirm negotiations for space in Glennbrook. Ross Dress for Less (Nasdaq: ROST) entered Tennessee last year and has opened stores in Farragut, Hamilton Place and Johnson City. A fourth store is scheduled to open Feb. 14 in Murfreesboro.

"Our goal is to open several stores in the state of Tennessee," says Katie Loughnot, spokeswoman for Ross Dress for Less. "It's a major growth market for us."

Petco Animal Supplies Inc. (Nasdaq: PETC) is looking to secure its third store in the Nashville area. Petco opened a store in Bellevue last year and a store in Hermitage in 2001. The No. 2 pet supply retailer operates 652 stores nationally. Real estate sources familiar with Petco could not confirm negotiations for space at Glennbrook.

Sumner 2000 LLC is developing Glennbrook North and sold the 14 acres to
Vastland Development Partnership for $3.9 million. The lot can support
110,000 square feet of retail space.

"We've got three or four anchors that we're looking pretty hard at," says Dan Strebel, development director for Vastland. "We are in negotiations and very close to closing the deal with two fairly large tenants and will have other smaller lease space."

Butch Hutcherson, founder of Sumner 2000, says phase one of the multi-million dollar retail development is almost complete. He is working on phase two, which calls for two large retail anchors, a family fitness center and a cinema.

Staples is continuing its expansion in the Nashville market. The office supply chain will open a store Dec. 6 at 100 Powell Place across from 100 Oaks Mall, and has stores in Murfreesboro, Hermitage, Franklin and Nashville.

Staples will open its Glennbrook store in August 2004.

"They were very excited with Kohl's and Target and the center's proximity to Hendersonville and Gallatin," says David Baker, broker for Baker Storey McDonald Properties.

Baker represents Staples for site selection of new stores in the Nashville area.

If lease negotiations are successful, then Vastland will have another 20,000-square-foot space, a 10,000-square-foot space and a few smaller shop spaces available in Glennbrook, says Strebel.

"We've got people looking at all of those spaces," says Strebel.

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