Major commercial developments are planned in the heart of Jonesboro

Developers hope to lure at least three chain restaurants to out parcels on the former Indian Mall property at the confluence of Highland Drive and Caraway Road, the second most important intersection in Jonesboro, Haag-Brown Broker Josh Brown told Talk Business & Politics.

Letters of intent will be sent to 15 different companies in the coming weeks. The hope is to have several functioning businesses on the 16-acre swath by the holiday season in 2018, he said. The goal is to target restaurants like the Texas Roadhouse and Dave and Buster’s, businesses that don’t already have locations in the city.

There has been significant interest in the property since the Indian Mall closed in 2008, but it has been in bankruptcy court which complicated any potential deals. Highland Group LLC bought the property for an undisclosed amount and has partnered with Haag-Brown to develop the site. The Highland Group will own the property and offer long-term leases to potential tenants, Brown said.

“If we get a proposal at that site we can now deliver on that project,” Brown said.

Caraway was once the dominant economic artery in the city. Flanked by Arkansas State University to the north and I-555 to the south, a myriad of businesses developed along its busy streets from the 1950s to the early 2000s. A host of restaurants, the old mall, NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital, and the city’s hotel row were developed on or near the thoroughfare. A report released by the city’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, MPO, showed that in 2002 there was an average of 24,000 vehicles per day that traveled along Caraway from Nettleton Avenue to Mathews Avenue.

Things changed in the 2000s. The part of the road leading into the ASU campus was blocked, the new Turtle Creek Mall was built on Red Wolf Boulevard, and NEA Baptist built a new hospital on U.S. 49 in the northern section of the city. The changes meant the traffic counts had dropped by 25% to 18,000 vehicles by 2012 along the road’s northern stretch. Many businesses along the route closed shop as a result.

Despite the mall’s shutdown in 2008, the stretch of Caraway from the bypass to Highland Drive has remained remarkably consistent even as traffic patterns on Red Wolf and Southwest Drive have increased by more than 20%. The stretch between U.S. 63 and Race Street, a thoroughfare adjacent to Highland, has increased its traffic counts by 18% since 2002 to 23,000 vehicles per day.

Brown said he doesn’t know if that part of Caraway will ever completely rebound, but there are signs of hope. It’s within the “medical mile” of the multi-million dollar renovations being done by St. Bernards, and the city of Jonesboro located its police station in the area several years ago.

The old retail development model involved luring a major retailer and then restaurants follow and locate on out parcels. The new trend is for restaurants to locate and then the retailers follow suit. The former Indian Mall has 80,000-square-feet of big box retail space, (the former Sears store), and enough room for three or four out parcels. Architectural drawings for a 35,000-square-foot retail space connecting an adjacent Kroger grocery store and the Sears building have been submitted.

Red Lobster, Cheddar’s, Sports Academy, and others have shown interest in the property through the years, but the bankruptcy issues forced those businesses to locate elsewhere in the city. Plans to keep the “Indian Mall” theme are being discussed, but it’s unlikely the actual name will be kept, Brown said. The former mall’s color scheme, or interior architecture themes may be included.

Besides restaurants, entertainment spaces will also be considered, he said. New ASU Chancellor Kelly Damphousse told Brown the number one concern students have is not enough entertainment options in the city, he said.

Two properties along the southern stretch of Caraway, the former K-Mart store and the former Perkins restaurant could have new tenants in the coming months. No announcements are imminent. With tenants in those properties the number of customers driving in that part of the city will only help it grow, Brown said.