The company redeveloping the former Oak Ridge Mall as Main Street Oak Ridge is working on pre-demolition activities and reviewing bids for the project.
A site plan for the proposed $80 million, 60-acre redevelopment was submitted to Oak Ridge Community Development on Monday. Here is more information about what is under way:
- Crosland Southeast, the North Carolina company that proposed the redevelopment, is doing pre-demolition activities, which includes asbestos abatement, and the company hopes that work will take place within a month.
- The civil design for the project has been completed along with architectural drawings for several new buildings, and all of those plans have been put out to bid along with the demolition plans. Crosland Southeast is currently reviewing those bid results.
- The reconstruction of East Main, West Main, and Wilson streets has also been put out to bid, and Crosland Southeast is reviewing those bids.
- The company’s intent is still to open Main Street Oak Ridge to retailers by Thanksgiving 2016.
The Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission will discuss Main Street Oak Ridge during a work session at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, July 9. The work session will be in the Municipal Building Training Room.
A site plan is an engineered construction drawing that includes the layout of buildings and parking, utility plans, traffic and pedestrian circulation, and stormwater management, said Kathryn Baldwin, Oak Ridge Community Development director. There would still be building plans for the construction of each building at the 60-acre site.
The Oak Ridge City Council approved a preliminary planned unit development, or PUD, master plan for Main Street Oak Ridge this spring. It identified such things as land uses plus overall site characteristics, height, and pedestrian connectivity. The site plan is the next step. Baldwin said a PUD plan can be a page or two, while this site plan is 30-40 pages.
She said the city has also received and is considering a preliminary subdivision plat that details construction plans for East and West Main Street and Wilson Street, which are private roads but could become public streets. A final plat would later record those roads as public right-of-way.
Main Street Oak Ridge would redevelop the mall as a mixed-use project that would include retailers, restaurants, residential units, and a hotel. The existing space between the two remaining anchors, Belk and JCPenney, would be demolished, although those two stores would remain.
In March, developers announced they had signed their first anchor store lease. In May, they announced that Atlanta-based MDC development group, through its affiliated company Canterfield Hotel Group LLC, will build a new 120-room hotel at the site.
See a copy of the most recent development plan published by Oak Ridge Today: Main Street Oak Ridge Site Plan April 16, 2015.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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