New Stores Coming Soon to Fort Smith Pavilion
Officials of Cheddar's restaurant recently confirmed their plans to open a Cheddar's at Fort Smith Pavilion. This location will be the restaruant chain's first Arkansas location.
Rick Payne, senior vice president at Irving, Texas-based Cheddars Casual Cafe Inc., says that, out of the currently operating Cheddar's restaurants, Tulsa is the closest to Fort Smith. The company operates roughly 60 Cheddar's restaurants in 16 states. Its location in Fort Smith is expected to be 7,800 square feet with a seating capacity for about 250 people. Payne said that the menu consists of "American cuisine with a little bit of everything." Cheddar's stores are built using construction materials like dark woods, stone, and rock. Payne would not, however, disclose the cost of its construction. Though Cheddar's has not set a date for the Fort Smith location opening, Payne hopes that the restaurant will open its doors by the end of 2008.
Evansville, Indiana-based Shoe Carnival, Inc. is planning a 12,000-square-foot store for the Pavilion to open mid-to-late October, about the same time as the development's anchor store, 145,000-square-foot Target discount retail. Shoe Carnival, who also has a store on Rogers Avenue, will open alongside Michael's, an arts and crafts supply store. Irving, Texas-based Michaels Stores Inc. operates 900 retail Michael's locations, including one on Rogers Avenue in Fort Smith. However, company officials were not authorized to disclose information about the planned store. Whether the Michael's at the Pavilion will be the company's second Fort Smith location or if it will replace the current Rogers Ave. store is currently unknown. Best Buy and Shoe Carnival do, however, plan to close their existing Fort Smith stores when their new locations at Fort Smith Pavilion begin operation.
Because of lease obligations, Kirk Light, Shoe Carnival vice president of real estate, reported that the Rogers Ave. store will maintain operations until late 2009 when its lease runs out while simultaneously staffing its new Pavilion store. Temporary workers will be hired to fill the scheduling gaps that will result from stretching staff between two locations, Light said. The new Shoe Carnival will be close to the same size as their current Fort Smith location. Light would not disclose construction costs but a city building permit for just the building shell (the finished exterior and unfinished interior plus plumbing and electrical work) has a $343,000 value.
