National discount retailers Dollar General and Family Dollar have filed plans to build new retail operations in Wilmington.
 
Dollar General submitted plans with the city’s Development Services division Monday to construct a 9,100-square-foot store at 5618 Oleander Drive.
 
The 1.57-acre tract is at the intersection of Oleander Drive and Dogwood Lane in the midtown section of the city and is surrounded by a number of mature shopping centers and residential neighborhoods.
 
Plans call for the store to be accessible via Dogwood Lane, with 32 proposed parking spaces. An existing house and other accompanying structures would be demolished to make way for the new retail operation, according to the documents.
 
The Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based company’s plans for the site comes months after the property’s owner, Wilmington-based Saunders & Saunders LLC, first requested in November that the parcel be rezoned from office and institutional to community business district – a zoning designation that allows for small retail development.
 
After receiving a favorable recommendation for the rezoning from the Wilmington Planning Commission, city council members in December approved the firm’s request.
 
No timeline for construction has been released.
 
Meanwhile, Family Dollar also is planning a new store at a heavily traveled intersection just east of downtown.
 
The Matthews, N.C.-based retailer filed plans Friday to construct a new 10,000-square-foot store at 709 S. 16th St.
 
Plans call for the store to sit on a prime 1.51-acre parcel that fronts Wooster Street. The store, at the corner of Wooster and South 17th streets, would not have access via Wooster Street. A proposed asphalt driveway connecting South 16th and 17th streets would give customers access to 38 parking spaces. A stormwater retention area and grass infiltration area are also proposed for the site, according to plans filed with the city.
 
Family Dollar currently operates a store in a shopping center at 833 S. 17th St., a block south of the proposed development.
 
Neither a construction timeline, nor future plans for the existing nearby store have been released.