By Jim Schlosser, Staff Writer
Greensboro News & Record
With the former Burlington Industries headquarters now rubble, Starmount Co. is guarded about what stores and restaurants may occupy the new shopping center planned for the 33-acre site on West Friendly Avenue.
Starmount executive Ron Wilson said if people want a preview of the design the company intends, they should visit the Streets at Southpoint in Durham.
Starmount will seek a smaller version of Southpoint, which opened in 2002: Side-by-side shops and restaurants that resemble a busy downtown street. Parking will be "defocused,'' to use Wilson's term, and will be behind buildings.
"You are not going to ride down Friendly Avenue and see parking lots,'' he said.
He said today's trend in shopping centers is almost Disneylike: They resemble downtowns with a town commons, plus many have a residential component.
Wilson said several new restaurants will face Friendly before motorists reach the center's entrance, which Wilson said will be gorgeous. Cars will go right or left at the entrance on a street forming a U. Stores will line the streets. A town commons will be in the middle, for entertainment and other public events.
Shoppers may need to drive behind the buildings for a parking place, as they once did in busy downtowns. Customers will also have to do some walking. It won't be a matter of parking in front of a store, as can sometimes be done in adjacent Friendly Shopping Center.
Wilson said buildings will be one and two stories.
The Streets at Southpoint has several department stores, but Wilson doesn't envision one in the new center.
It would, he explained, consume too much of the limited space.
Besides, he said, Friendly Center, which Starmount opened in 1957 and has practically rebuilt several times, has two upscale department stores, Belk and Hecht's.
In February, Starmount President Coolidge Porterfield speculated the Harris Teeter supermarket might relocate to the new center.
If so, the store would seemingly be far larger than other buildings planned for the downtown-like street. Wilson said he's not sure of Harris Teeter's plans. If it does move, he said, the old building (which is relatively new) could be remodeled for shops or torn down for a new use.
He said he can't reveal potential tenants until leases are signed.
But as an example of what Starmount seeks, Wilson cited the Chinese restaurant chain, P.F. Chang's.
He called Chang's one of America's hottest chains and said Greensboro residents drive to Durham to eat at a Chang's in a Starmount shopping center across from the Streets at Southpoint. Wilson said Chang's serves Chinese food "that's a little bit on the gourmet style.''
Wilson said the center will have classy landscaping with plenty of grass and trees. Some trees are already there. Some removed for the Burlington building implosion will be replanted and many more will be added.
"This project really excites me, and I'm hard to excite,'' Wilson said.
He said work has been under way for weeks. While D.H. Griffin wrecking company was preparing for Monday's spectacular implosion of the former textile headquarters, Starmount was grading and putting in utilities in the portion that served as Burlington's parking lots.
He expects the shopping center to be finished late 2006, and a residential/retail phase in 2007.
Wilson said Starmount is wrestling with the design of the retail/residential area that will be near the corner of Hobbs Road and Northline Avenue. It could be townhouses with retail and offices on the ground floors and residential above. Or it could be one building with retail, offices and parking on the lower levels below residential. The land is zoned for 100 residential units.
He said one of the nation's best designers, the architectural firm LS3P, with offices in Charlotte and three other cities, is designing the center and residential/retail complex.
The firm designed the popular Phillips Place in Charlotte.
A Web site describes Phillips Place as "complete with arcades and a cobblestone town square ... (Phillips Place) has the ambiance of a pedestrian-friendly small town.''
The new center, Wilson said, will be an extension of the old center next door.
"This is an opportunity for us to take Friendly Center to a new level," he said.
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