Within the next week, The Covington Company is expected to announce new additions to the Southgate Shopping Center. The company’s web site advertises a space open on the inside of the old Rose’s store next to the Centra center at 7,500 square feet. The site also lists 2,362 square feet of free standing space for “restaurants.” According to the company’s loopnet.com listing, the openings are attached to 36 and 60 month leases.
The new structure on the north end of the Southgate center is being divided up for smaller businesses to move into. Verizon has settled into the old Dairy Queen building and Centra is occupying most of the southern end of the center, filling the area previously occupied by Roses. CVS is still rumored to receive a freestanding building, “off to the right of the current CVS,” according to Town Manager, Gerald Spates.
Owner of the center, Jim Covington, of the Covington Company out of Richmond, calls the acquisition of Centra a “wonderful thing.”
“It’s a well located piece of property,” said Covington, “and the timing was right [for Centra].” The Centra center was recently issued a big bond through the hospital for the 52,000 square foot treatment center, which was one of the first new additions to Southgate.
The old Kroger has now been all but erased from the shopping center. “[It] was a small store, but they wouldn’t expand,” Covington said, “We had to come up with an entirely new use for the space.”
While more, free-standing buildings are planned, no new businesses have been confirmed for the open spaces. The center was originally built in 1979 and last renovated in 2005, according to thecovingtoncompany.com.
