Big Lots, Dollar General to Open Stores in Tyler - August 9, 1995 By Tony Floyd (Business Editor) A growing national closeout/discount chain that is charting a strong push into Texas will join a recognized variety store chain at the long vacated East Fifth Street/South Beckham Avenue site before year’s end. A Tyler-based spokesman for the property’s ownership group said Tuesday. Long-term leases were recently secured for two national retailers: Big lots, an operating unit of the 754 store Consolidated Stores Corp of Columbus, Ohio, and Dollar General Stores Corp of Scottsville, Ky., said Martin Heines, co-president of Briarwood Group, LLC, which recently acquired the building from a group headed by Houston investor Jerry Finger. Finger’s group owned the building for the duration of its 30 year plus K-Mart/El Chico restaurant period, while the property was owned by the Pollard Estate of Tyler. K-Mart closed its north Tyler and Fifth/Beckham stores in late 1993 and consolidated those operations into a new building on ESE Loop 323, across from Southpark Shopping Center. El Chico closed the restaurant adjacent to the Fifth/Beckham K-Mart soon thereafter, and the building has since remained vacant. Brookshire Grogery Co is currently renovating the former north Tyler K-Mart site for use as Super 1 Foods store. Brookshire’s has targeted a pre-Christmas opening for the store. The 90,000 square foot building at the intersection of East Fifth and South Beckham has undergone extensive renovations in recent weeks, including a new layer of asphalt on the parking lot and new external paint, making way for the first two tenants in the soon-to-be reconfigured building, which will feature separate, storefront tenants. Meanwhile, lease negotiations for the remaining space proceed with a number of other unidentified national retail chains, as well as some local retailing interest, Heines said. Big Lots is one of four store chains in 38 states owned by Consolidated Stores, the self-described “largest closeout retailer in the country”. In addition to 488 stores operating under the Big Lots and Odd Lots banners, Consolidated has 156 All for One stores, 27 Itzadeal! Stores and 82 Toy Liquidators stores. Big Lots stores – described in the company’s 1994 annual report as “large retail outlets offering a large and constantly changing variety of quality brand name closeout merchandise” – will occupy 28,600 square feet in the former K-Mart building, Heines said. Big Lots specializes in clothing, sporting goods, housewares and computer related equipment and accessories, according to Consolidated Stores annual report. Dollar General’s proposed 8,500 square foot store will provide the Kentucky based company with its third operating site in Tyler, joining existing stores at 2317 W. Erwin Street and 1934 Roseland Blvd. in Bergfeld Center. Bobby Rauch of the Network Group, Houston, who represented Briarwood Group in negotiations with both new tenants, is also coordinating with other prospective tenants, Heines said. Rauch said, “We are going to continue to talk to prospects (for the remaining space). But these two, Big Lots and Dollar General, were the catalysts.” Over the course of negotiations, numerous retailers expressed interest in the former K-Mart/El Chico site, Rauch said, but many were ill equipped to assume the entire 90,000 square foot building, Heines said. Early on in those negotiations, Briarwood elected to divide the building to suit prospective tenants’ space specifications, Heines said. Even with the new tenants secured, the building still has a 6,000 square foot store site, along with 40,000 square feet that can be divided to tenant specifications and a 5,500 square foot restaurant space, Heines said. Consolidated Stores plans to open 35-40 stores in Texas over the next two years, beginning with stores in Sherman, Gainesville and Tyler, Rauch said. He estimated six or seven of those stores would open in vacated buildings formerly operated by the K-Mart chain. Typically, Big Lots stores operate in markets with populations of 25-30,000, Rauch said, so the proposed Tyler store will represent somewhat of a departure from the company’s strategy. “Tyler is a lot bigger than their usual markets, but they are also looking at sites in Houston”, Rauch said. A publicly held company whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, Consolidated Stores reported sales of more than $1.5 billion in 1994. Dollar General, a national discount retail chain with 2,200 stores in 24 states, sells clothing for men, women and children, shoes, domestics, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, housewares and toys. While most Dollar General stores are located in communities with 25,000 or fewer people, some selected locations are within larger metropolitan areas, primarily in the South, company spokeswoman Karen Moss said Tuesday. While the company’s typical customer is between 25-45 years old, a significant share of Dollar General shoppers include retirees, Ms. Moss said. Dollar General, which became a publicly held company in 1968, reported sales of more than $1 billion last year. Written in the Tyler Courier-Times Telegraph. << Archive