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Developer's inaction has neighbors wondering
Clemmons panel OK'd plans two years ago
Journal Map by Richard Boyd II
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Published: January 15, 2009
Updated: 01/15/2009 12:10 am
CLEMMONS - More than two years ago, the Clemmons Village Council approved a Charlotte developer's plan to turn 62 acres off Lewisville-Clemmons Road into a shopping center with a theater, gourmet market and upscale retail shops.
Today, that land remains undeveloped.
Jamie Horton, who owns a nearby pizza restaurant, wants to know why.
On Monday, Horton asked the council for an update on Hill Partners Inc.'s plans to develop the Clemmons Town Center.
The planned open-air center will be situated near Interstate 40, behind the Clemmons Village West shopping center. The shopping center will be 540,000 square feet, according to information on Hill Partners' Web site.
Last summer, Horton opened Donatos, a pizza restaurant in Clemmons Village West.
"We need that development on Towncenter Drive," Horton said, referring to a road that will link Clemmons Village West with Clemmons Town Center. "We need jobs in Forsyth County, and that development will drive jobs in that area."
Mayor John Bost told Horton at the meeting that the property has been rezoned and that the village has done nothing to impede the development's progress.
"We've really heard nothing from them," Bost said after the meeting. "We're hoping the public is aware that we've rezoned that area, and we welcome construction to begin."
The developer must still submit a storm-water plan to the village. Once that is approved, the developer can begin breaking ground, Bost said.
Hill Partners, which did not respond to interview requests, might be waiting to see what happens with Novant's plan to build a hospital nearby, he said.
Earlier this week, Novant accepted the state's conditions for the proposed Clemmons Medical Center. Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, which wants to build a competing hospital, must decide by Jan. 22 whether to appeal the state's conditional approval. An appeal would set back construction of the Clemmons hospital by about a year.
Bost said he believes that some businesses might have moved into Clemmons Village West and onto Allegacy Way with the expectation that the Clemmons Town Center would soon follow suit.
"And that's not occurring as timely as they had hoped," he said.
Dream Dinners was one of the earliest tenants in Clemmons Village West, said Edie Amerando, one of the co-owners.
One reason that she and her partner chose the location was because of its proximity to the proposed shopping center.
"We definitely thought it would be done by now," she said.
■ Lisa O'Donnell can be reached at 727-7420 or at lodonnell@wsjournal.com.
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