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Dixie Manor, one of Jefferson County's oldest shopping centers, will become the county's latest "power center," and the first in the southwest portion of the county, according to its management.
A couple of months ago, crews began reconstructing the center's secondary entrance on Dixie Highway and removing two buildings and a portion of a third, all of which housed stores but sat in front of several other larger ones.
That work is expected to be finished by the end of this month, said Tara Sears, marketing director of Plaza Centers Inc., which owns Dixie Manor. It's part of a more than $7 million project that Plaza Centers officials hope will bring national "big box" retailers to the shopping center, she said.
Despite losing about 16,000 square feet of store space, the changes should boost the shopping center's stature, said management and tenants alike.
Dixie Manor ranked ninth with 355,000 square feet of space in the most recent Business First List of Largest Area Shopping Complexes. Sears said the center has about 117,000 square feet of space available.
Landscaping and additional parking spaces will take the place of the razed buildings. Removing those buildings provides street exposure for several of the center's available spaces in its two main corridors, said Sue Waling, leasing director for Plaza Centers, which also owns Iroquois Manor and Bluegrass Manor shopping centers.
Company officials hope to begin announcing new tenants by the first of the year.
In dealing with national retailers, Plaza Centers officials discovered that street visibility plays a major role in companies' decisions to...