JC Penney Plans 80,000-SF Store at Arbor Place

ATLANTA-The four-year-old, 1.2-million-sf Arbor Place off Interstate 20 in suburban Douglasville, GA will be sporting two new anchors in 2004, according to a published report.

JC Penney plans a two-story, 80,000-sf store. In addition, Rich’s-Macy’s expects to break ground this month on what area brokers tell GlobeSt.com will be at least a 100,000-sf store.

The JC Penney store is expected to come in at a hard cost of about $10 million, based on a $125 per-sf hard construction cost, according to area construction industry estimators. The Rich’s-Macy’s project is estimated at $12.5 million.

JC Penney will be building in the former space occupied by Dekor, a home improvement retailer that closed at Arbor Place in 2001, according to the report.

New shopping center development has slowed, according to a first-quarter market report by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Brokerage Co. First-quarter vacancy levels in metro Atlanta averaged 9.4%, up from 9.3% at the end of 2002, the report states, and the company projects the vacancy mark will be unchanged for the rest of the year.