A 36-year-old Ogden shopping center is getting a large new tenant and a facelift.
Ashley Furniture HomeStore will occupy about 33,000 square feet in Ogden Plaza, a center built in 1981 at 6840 Market St. that includes a Harris Teeter grocery store.
Herbie Walton, owner of the Ashley Furniture HomeStore in Monkey Junction and the outlet store on Market Street, said he hopes to be able to open the HomeStore at Ogden Plaza in June, depending on how long extensive renovations take. The existing Market Street outlet store, which occupies about 12,000 square feet at 6508 Market St., will close, he said.
Walton said he signed a lease for the Ogden Plaza space about a month ago, after searching for a location in northern New Hanover County and finding few spaces that would meet his needs. The Ogden Plaza space has been vacant for several years after previously holding a Roses.
"That was the one that had some size," he said.
Ogden Plaza is owned by a Cameron company, Ogden Plaza LLC. Much of the shopping center is getting a facelift, except for the Harris Teeter grocery store, which has a newer facade, said Hill Rogers, broker in charge of Wilmington-based Cameron Management.
"We’re in the midst of working with our architect to come up with designs to redesign the shopping center," said Rogers, who handled the lease with Ashley Furniture HomeStore for Ogden Plaza LLC.
David Lucas, a broker with Julius M. Feinblum Real Estate Inc., represented Ashley Furniture HomeStore in the transaction.
Walton has been in the home furnishings business in Wilmington for 46 years. The Monkey Junction Ashley Furniture HomeStore opened 18 years ago, he said.
With growth continuing in northern New Hanover County and road improvements on the way to the area, Walton said he expects the new location to do well.
Referring to the N.C. Department of Transportation's Military Cutoff Extension and Hampstead Bypass project, he said, "Once it's finished, everything's going to empty right at our doorstep all the way from Topsail Beach to there."
