SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Mayor Frank Mullens said discussions with Menards home improvement store on coming to the Park Place development project have occurred since the project was born.
In the past week, Mullens said the city closed the deal and announced Menards would become the big-box anchor stores officials were hoping to land.
“Ever since this project was born, that name kept popping up as a potential anchor for us. The more and more we looked into it, and the more and more we talked to them, the more we both liked the idea,” Mullens said.
“Both Menards liked the site and we liked the idea of them being a big-box anchor for us.”
Menards becomes the first major tenant announced for the development at the former Fly Ash Pond located across MacCorkle Avenue from Riverwalk Plaza. Mullens confirmed Chick-Fil-A will be there too after the restaurant had a separate announcement in July.
Mullens told 580-WCHS that Menards checked off several boxes including it being high volume with jobs to fill. He also said it goes along with the project’s goals of bringing in new retailers, stores to the state.
Menards has three locations in West Virginia including Westover, Triadelphia in Ohio County and Barboursville.
“I’m not naive enough to think it’s going to be 100 percent new but if we could get 60 to 70 percent built up of new things to the area, I think it would be great,” Mullens said.
Mullens did not have a projection of when Menards may open its project 175,000 square foot store but gave an estimate for construction.
“First thing we have to do is get the site pad ready, but we’re close, so that’s why we closed the deal. It was time to get that done,” he said.
“We have a few months to go to bring fill in to make the site pad ready for them to build. We are hoping they can begin construction this fall.”
Mullens expects Chick-Fil-A to be the first tenant to open its door at the development later this year. He expects other announcements in the coming weeks and months with Park Place expected to have more than two dozen tenants.
“I don’t have any announcements to make further but we have a lot of deals in the making and I’m sure we’ll have announcements soon,” the mayor said.