Shopping center planned for site on the boulevard

Another prime retail spot on Floyd Baker Boulevard is off the market.

Greenville-based Rhino Realty Fund announced Monday it plans to build a 40,000-square-foot shopping center on a five-acre parcel adjacent to Eckerd's.

The Peach Plaza will include a six-tenant strip mall and three outparcels. The outparcels will front Floyd Baker Boulevard with the strip mall located in the rear of the property, project manager McFadden Blanding said. The existing Enterprise Car Rental and CheckMate are located on one of the outparcels.

Citi Trends - located in a 12,000- square-foot retail space - will anchor the strip mall. Citi Trends sells children's clothing. Aaron Rents will occupy a 7,000-squarefoot retail space in the strip mall while the other retail spots have yet to be leased.

Pizza Hut will relocate from its present location on Floyd Baker Boulevard to the outparcel next to Eckerd's. A Pizza Hut spokesperson said there is no word on a possible tenant for the existing Pizza Hut building.

Blanding said possible tenants for the other outparcel will be a smaller-size restaurant or bank.

Blanding said Gaffney's expanding commercial sector lured the developer here.

"This market is ripe and a lot of national retailers are targeting for future expansion," he said.

A pre-construction meeting with city officials is scheduled for today, according to Blanding.

City officials said Pizza Hut has submitted its site and building plans.

Blanding said grading work on the shopping center site could begin as early as this week. The project could be completed by the fall, he said.

"Rhino Realty acquired the approximate 5-acre site a few months ago," said Rhino Realty Fund official Brad Thomas. "Our plan was to secure quality tenants like Pizza Hut, Aaron Rents and Citi Trends. We are currently negotiating with a national chain for another 5,000 square feet and we have another 5,000 square feet to lease. Also, we have an additional outpad that will accommodate about 3,000 square feet of space. Our fund will continue with our core business plan of acquiring value-added assets with demographics that meet our investment criteria and developing new space on a build-to-suit basis."

Peach Plaza is close to another Rhino Realty Fund project, Cherokee Plaza.

Last month, it was reported a Georgia commercial real estate developer is looking to build a shopping center on the former Sarratt property adjacent to the Wal-Mart Supercenter.