Construction Surges on EastChase Parkway
As you drive through the sprawling EastChase development, you see hotels galore, upscale apartment units and new businesses popping up along EastChase Parkway.
One of those new big-box retailers is Hobby Lobby, which is building its latest prototype store on a seven-acre site to replace its outdated facility on Atlanta Highway. The new 55,000-square-foot building is expected to open in the spring.
Jeff Branch, general manager of The Shoppes at EastChase and EastChase Plaza |
The new store “should cater to a more upscale customer than I think they had previously,” said Jeff Branch, general manager of The Shoppes at EastChase, EastChase Plaza and three outparcels.
“Obviously, when we add a big retailer like that to the development – it’s additional traffic,” he said. “It’s one more venue that adds to our shopping mix.”
Branch oversees 96 stores, including nine restaurants for Birmingham-based Bayer Properties, which manages the stores for owner JPMorgan Chase. He said that a Holiday Inn is looking at land adjacent to The Morgan at EastChase, which is a 216-unit upscale apartment development. The development also has the 272-unit Broadstreet at EastChase.
A number of the apartments are two and three bedrooms, which means families living there, and those families will be eating and shopping at EastChase, Branch said.
Hobby Lobby is not the only building under construction on EastChase Parkway. A dental office called All About Smiles is also being built along EastChase Parkway.
Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ’n Biscuits opened in October and is Montgomery’s first Bojangles’. Milo’s Hamburgers opened in early September on EastChase Parkway.
Towne Place Suites is under construction on EastChase Parkway and when completed next year will have 93 rooms to increase the supply of EastChase hotel rooms to nearly 930.
There is even more construction on Chantilly Parkway, and across the street from EastChase is Chase Corner, which is anchored by Whole Foods Market. Chase Corner is not viewed as a competitor by Branch, who said he is “excited” about having a Whole Foods Market. “It’s going to bring people to our area,” he said. “Foot traffic is big – that’s half the battle for us to get people out here to our shopping center. The other half is getting them inside the store.”
If Whole Foods customers do not want to eat at one of the three options at Chase Corner, there is another nearby option. “Obviously, the convenient thing to do is come right across the street to us,” Branch said. “We like the idea of having them over there.”
The Shoppes at EastChase and EastChase Plaza have “created a buzz” by bringing new retailers to the Montgomery market, Branch said. It’s all about increasing the traffic to the area.
“If we just pull people from the downtown area and place a second location out here or if we pull from the bypass area and place a second location out there – the community doesn’t get as excited about that as a retailer who is new to the market, which I think we have done a really nice job of.”
He said that EastChase benefits from its close proximity to the growing Pike Road community; having “elite housing” such as Wynlakes Golf & Country Club on the perimeter; easy interstate access of exit nine and exit 11; as well as the hotels and apartments.
The properties he manages have gone from a 78 percent occupancy rate in January 2011 to today’s 99 percent occupancy rate. While overall sales growth mirrors the national average of 3 to 4 percent, the center’s strongest category has been beauty and health with a 15 to 20 percent sales increase from Anthony Vince Nail Spa, Bath & Body Works, Nails By Elizabeth and Massage Envy.
