South Square Area To Be Rejuvenated

In September 2001, the Durham shopping community was shocked when J.C. Penney and Hudson Belk announced their intentions to leave South Square Mall and join the new Streets at SouthPoint across town.

The following January, South Square shut its doors and left the 790,000-square-foot property vacant. SouthPoint opened its doors a short while later, and the former South Square property was abandoned for some time.

But Charlotte-based retail firm Faison and Associates has decided to reopen the property with open-air sale stores in spring 2004.

The new complex is still in preliminary development, but Target already has been signed to the property and will open in 2004.

Other stand-alone retailers such as Sam's Club, as well as smaller chain stores, might join Target to replace the property off U.S. 15-501.

But officials said no plans have been finalized for other retailers to complement Firestone, Office Depot and Chick-fil-A, which will remain in their original locations.

Although South Square was put out of business with SouthPoint's opening, officials say the new plans for the location will not compete with the mall across town.

"(The new complex) and SouthPoint will not compete because they are two different products," said Jensie Teague, senior managing director for Faison.

Durham City Council member and Mayor Pro Tem Lewis A. Cheek echoes this sentiment.

"It is not intended to compete with SouthPoint, which is the point," he said. "That was one of the problems with South Square. ... It offered similar stores to SouthPoint, and the new mall took all the business."

When the project was first brought before the Durham City Council, transit to and from the mall was the focal issue.

Cheek said the transit routes had to be redrawn for the new shopping center.

"There were issues of a transit corridor, a potential rail line through Chapel Hill into Durham," he said.

"It was initially agreed that the corridor would run through the South Square property, but this had to be realigned. As a City Council, we agreed to move the transit corridor to go around the property instead of through it."

Although 2004 is still a year away, there is still much for both Faison and the Durham City Council to accomplish.

The council might approve the final redevelopment plan at its meeting next month.

Faison and Associates feel confident that the plan will be approved and the new complex will thrive where South Square could not.

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.