Rumors about who will be the next University of Kentucky basketball coach aren't the only ones going around Georgetown. Some residents are wondering what's going to replace the Country World Flea Market on U.S.
460.
A plan for a 368,000-square-foot retail center was approved there last fall.
"Everyone is trying to get out what they are going to put there," said Becky Livesay, 34, citing rumors about Target or Meijer locating there.
It's likely that Scott County, like the other counties that ring Fayette County, is going to be a little less country when it's built.
With some of the ring counties growing at least three times as fast as Fayette, they have now become destinations for big-box retailers -- and the tax dollars they bring in.
"The key thing is that the corporations go where the people are," said Steve Austin, president and CEO of Bluegrass Tomorrow.
"These communities are growing."
Scott is the third-fastest-growing county in the state, and Madison and Jessamine aren't far behind, recent Census Bureau estimates show.
Big-box retailers are those that occupy more than 50,000 square feet, such as Circuit City and Home Depot.
Several have opened or will open soon in the ring counties, along with smaller retailers.
In Jessamine County, a Sam's Club will locate at the Commerce Center development that currently has Kohl's, Starbucks and CiCi's Pizza. At the border of Lexington and Nicholasville, the Brannon Crossing shopping center currently has AmStar Cinemas, Goody's Family Clothing, and other businesses, and construction is continuing.
In Madison County, Meijer, JCPenney and a 12-screen movie theater are planning to locate at the 800,000-square-foot Shops at Richmond Centre. A few miles away, a Home Depot is planning to set up shop at the 100,000-square-foot Woodlawn Crossing development. Both centers are set to open in October 2008.
The Georgetown project, called the Thoroughbred Center, has the possibility of at least one big-box store. However, one of the landowners, Andy Milburn, said the property has not been sold yet. The east side of Georgetown already has a Wal-Mart, Kohl's, Kmart and a Lowe's.
Retailers "are not only looking for what the demographics are now, but what is the future growth in that area," said Daniel Butler, vice president of merchandising and retail operations for the National Retail Federation.
Britt Goodson, a partner in Carolina Holdings, developers of the Shops at Richmond Centre, said the company looked at several markets around Lexington before deciding that the greatest opportunity was in Richmond. He noted that Madison County, which has added almost 100 subdivisions since 1996, is growing faster than the national average.
And once you leave Lexington's Hamburg Place going south, he said, there are no major regional retail offerings until Knoxville.
When Meijer announced a Richmond location in January, spokeswoman Stacie Behler noted the location was in "a really great market" close to Eastern Kentucky University. Richmond will be Meijer's first store in Fayette's ring counties.
Kohl's, which has stores in Georgetown and Nicholasville, says it looks "for communities with high concentration of families with children."
"Kohl's picks convenient locations that are close to where our customers live and work," company spokeswoman Courtney Rogaczewski wrote in an e-mail. "We are happy with the results we have seen in Lexington and the surrounding areas.
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Richmond Mayor Connie Lawson said in her State of the City address that Kohl's may locate in Richmond, but the company has not announced plans for a store there.
Austin noted that the ring counties can be shopping hubs for the smaller counties nearby.
For example, Goodson and Richmond developers hope the Richmond Centre will lure shoppers from Irvine, Berea, Mount Vernon and other communities south and east of Richmond who would otherwise drive to Hamburg.
"That's part of what those national retailers are thinking: 'Hey, I can head these guys off at the pass,'" Austin said.
Retailers' success in Lexington also plays a role in a move to the suburbs, said Jim Hughes, a Nicholasville developer who has built shopping centers in Jessamine and Anderson counties and elsewhere.
"They're doing well in their stores in the Lexington market, so the next logical thing is to go out to the ring areas and put a store out there," Hughes said.
That way, retailers can get more bang for their advertising buck.
"You try to concentrate your stores when you go to a geographic market, so you can cover your advertising with one source. Because a full-page ad in the Herald-Leader covers the store that's in Lexington, Georgetown, Richmond, Nicholasville or any of the other surrounding markets," Hughes said.
Likewise, stores that open first in the ring counties will probably put more locations in Lexington, Hughes said. Red Robin, a gourmet hamburger chain now building in Brannon Crossing in Jessamine County, is new to this market, but Hughes predicts that the company will open more stores in Lexington.
"They've been looking for locations already," Hughes said.
Not all retail moves are entirely good news, however. Sometimes a relocating merchant leaves an empty store behind.
JCPenney already has a store in Richmond Mall, but city officials say they expect that store will close.
Officials with JCPenney have not confirmed that, however.
In Lexington, trash clogged the stream behind vacant Lexington Mall, creating an environmental hazard. The site is being cleaned up.
The mall's owner said it plans for the property to be redeveloped in time for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.
"Those places were once the hit, and now they are not doing so well," Austin said. "It's not an attractive situation to have a struggling shopping center in the community.
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Cities try to avoid that by establishing design standards that hold big-box retailers to a higher standard, said Rhonda Cromer, a planner with the Georgetown-Scott County Planning Commission.
The commission adopted design guidelines that address aesthetic character for the development and the development's relationship to the surrounding community. The guidelines "make the buildings more adaptable if the original tenant leaves," Cromer said.
Traffic is another concern. Georgetown City Council recently approved a traffic study in the area of U.S.
460 and Connector Road, where commercial and residential growth is occurring along a two-lane highway. Kohl's, Lowe's, Starbucks and other restaurants have opened in the area.
"A lot of people express interest in particular stores coming to the community, but a lot are concerned about the additional traffic," Cromer said.
Georgetown resident Livesay sees traffic as a potential problem, but thinks widening the road will be a small price to pay to avoid driving 30 minutes to Hamburg.
"My goodness, Georgetown has a Starbucks coffee now," Livesay said. "That right there shows that the only plans are for more things here.
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