Bellafont Building Begins Again

We’ve been keeping you up to date on the Barber Group’s stalled Bellafont project on Joyce Boulevard in Fayetteville and we’ve been glad to see construction resume in the last few weeks.

The roof is being installed at the future home of Mellow Mushroom, a gourmet pizza franchise based in Atlanta with several locations across the southeast.

The walls for the 53,000-SF retail center have long been poured and waiting at the site and Emelia’s has been signed as a future tenant for its second Fayetteville restaurant.

Flake & Kelley Commercial has signed on with Barber to handle leasing at the project, and it will have its work cut out now that East Meets West Spa & Salon won’t be taking over the 7,242-SF building that’s still incomplete long after a May 15, 2007, contractual deadline.

EMW has announced it will be opening its flagship location at The Shoppes at The Bluff, a Mathias Properties project, just north of the new Shogun restaurant on Steele Boulevard in Fayetteville. Groundbreaking is set for March 26.

EMW had a contract with Barber that would have generated $181,050 annually, and the contract also had a provision for a $1,000 per day penalty fee after May 15. Barber Group CEO Brandon Barber has previously stated those fines had been worked out, and EMW is currently operating a satellite location at his Legacy Building in downtown Fayetteville.

EMW owner Helena Gadison sued Barber on Nov. 20 over delays and broken promises at Bellafont. The Legacy has been foreclosed upon by Legacy National Bank of Springdale for an unpaid balance on two loans of $18.1 million.

Barber is also locked in a dispute with former general contractor Precept Builders Inc. of Dallas, which has filed for foreclosure on four lots at Bellafont for an unpaid claim of $924,082.