Boyle Adding Pier 1, Room Rack Shoes at Gallina

By Jane Aldinger
– Memphis Business Journal –

Boyle Investment Co. is launching the construction of an additional 28,000 square feet at its Gallina Centro retail development at the corner of Houston Levee and Poplar in Collierville.

The additional space will house an 11,000 square foot Pier 1 Imports and a 6,000 square foot Rack Room Shoes store. Another 11,000 square feet will be mostly speculative space, although Boyle is in negotiations with additional tenants, says Cary Whitehead, senior vice president.

The center currently houses a Kroger, Kohl’s Home Improvement Warehouse and a Stein Mart. Walgreens and McDonald’s are also built on outparcels at Gallina Centro.

Construction on the new space adjacent to Kohl’s, should begin in July once plans for a building permit are approved, and Whitehead says he expects the building to be completed by next summer.

Collierville has shown an ability to sustain retail development and retail continues to pop up along Poplar in the town.

Another retail center is being developed on Poplar in Collierville between Houston Levee and Bailey Station. Ballard Station is an 11,000 square foot center that will house a gas station, a 3,500 square foot convenience store and five additional bays totaling 7,500 square feet says Tom Schaffler, member with developer Premier Holding.

The town of Collierville is building a new street that will run from Poplar north to Crooked Creek. That street will then fulfill the corner for the two-acre Ballard Station site.

Collierville’s booming residential market is contributing to the suburb’s influx of retail.

“Rooftops are the name of the game.” Whitehead says. “If you don’t have customers, you don’t need a store.”

Collierville is one of the stronger markets in the Memphis metro area for the retail real estate market, posting a 5.6% vacancy rate in first quarter 2004, according to CB Richard Ellis market reports. Only Olive Branch was stronger with a 4.3% vacancy rate.

There is about 1.37 million square feet of rentable retail space in Collierville with an average asking lease rate of $15.92 per square foot. That lease rate is also one of the strongest in the area, followed closely by Cordova at $15.67 per square foot and second only to Germantown’s average asking lease rate of $16.84 per square foot.

Germantown has nearly twice the retail square footage as Collierville, but posted 8.0% vacancy in first quarter 2004 and negative absorption near 9,000 square feet.

Frank Dyer III, senior vice president of Loeb Properties, says the Collierville market will continue to gain momentum as its retailers can draw from all of eastern Shelby County and parts of North Mississippi.

“Now with more and more opening in Collierville, they (residents) are able to come right in and get those needs handled,” Dyer says. “When the Avenue at Carriage Crossing opens up, it will be easier for a lot of those North Mississippi residents to get to a mall than some of those in Memphis.”

The Avenue at Carriage Crossing project, a joint venture between Montgomery, Ala.-based Jim Wilson & Associates, Inc., and Atlanta-based Cousins Properties, Inc., is being developed at Nonconnah Parkway and Houston Levee. The 800,000 square-foot open-air mall will be built on 93 acres.

Dyer says the Kohl’s and Stein Mart in Gallina Centro will draw shoppers that can help support a tenant like Pier 1 Imports.