Ground is Ceremoniously Broken for Promenade Retail Center
(From left to right) Ron Jobe of EMJ, Elaine Wilkinson of GCRP, Paul Klobe, Planning Commissioner, Harrison Couty Supervisors Connie Rocko, William Martin, Marlin Ladner, Kim Savant and Windy Swetman, City of D’Iberville Councilmembers Teddy Harder, Bob Bellman and Brenda Broussard, City Manager Richard Rose, Miss. State Senator Tommy Gollott, City Councilmember Henry Toncrey, Steve Tingle of CBL, Mayor Rusty Quave, Geoff Smith and Michael Lebovitz of CBL and Bill Brown or Forum, get ready to toss up a pile of dirt as the group ceremoniously breaks ground on The Promenade, a 700,000 square foot retail center being built on the northwest corner of the I-110/I-10 interchange in D’Iberville.
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Below is from The Sun Herald. See sunherald.com for more stories.
The Promenade breaks ground,
but no word on Target
By MARY PEREZ
meperez@sunherald.com
D’IBERVILLE –
The groundbreaking for The Promenade shopping center in D’Iberville was toasted with champagne Tuesday afternoon, but the hundreds of people who attended the ceremony left without hearing what shops and restaurants will be coming.
“Many of the rumors are true,” said Geoffrey Smith, vice president of development for CBL & Associates Properties, and he said the community “will not be disappointed. The Promenade will be anchored by many of our nation’s most popular shopping and dining destinations.”
Smith said these are public companies that insist on handling their own public relations. “We will be making joint announcements with retailers very soon,” Smith said. “That will be even more fun than today.”
So the ceremony neither confirmed nor denied what has long been the talk of the Coast - that the development might include a long-awaited Target store.
The Promenade is being built on the northwest corner of the intersection of Interstates 10 and 110. “It will be walkable,” said Smith, with Promenade Parkway separating the two retail sections and restaurants lined up along the five-lane road. “We’re actually making deals with restaurants,” Smith said.
A mix of 11 anchors, specialty shops and restaurants will fill the 700,000-square-foot shopping center that will open in fall 2009.
The Promenade will be built by EMJ, the Chattanooga, Tenn., contractor that has built all 86 of CBL’s shopping centers in 27 states, including four in Mississippi.
Bill Brown of The Forum Development Group, which is partnering with CDL to build The Promenade, said it took 42 months of work, including buying 72 parcels in 45 days, and was the hardest deal he’s put together in 20 years. He credited the teamwork of the city of D’Iberville, Harrison County, the Mississippi Development Authority, Gulf Coast Regional Planning and Gov. Haley Barbour’s office, which Mayor Rusty Quave said gave a $5 million economic-development grant to build roads and infrastructure.
Quave said the city staff and lawyers even worked Saturdays and Sundays to bring The Promenade to their town. “The competition’s fierce. Gulfport’s fighting for the same box stores that are in here.”
Jamie Miller, representing the governor, said Barbour stresses two things: “Recovery is locally driven, and 2008 is the year of bricks and mortar.”
“D’Iberville is one of the fastest-growing cities in the state,” said state Sen. Tommy Gollott. Once Mississippi 67 is finished around the first of the year, he said 40 percent of the traffic coming down U.S. 49 will divert to the new road. “They’re going to stop here in D’Iberville to shop and play at the casinos in Biloxi,” said Gollott, “and bring money to Mississippi.”
