New Dollar General planned

Published 7:52 pm Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Discount grocery store Dollar General is planning to open a new store on Dothan Road, on land that is currently part of the Commodore Decatur Industrial Park.

At its Tuesday evening meeting, the Bainbridge City Council unanimously voted to give its consent for the transfer of a 1.72-acre parcel to the Development Authority of Bainbridge and Decatur County. Since the city jointly owns the industrial park with the county government, county commissioners will also have to approve the transfer. Once that’s done, the Development Authority will negotiate the terms of sale to Dollar General, Bainbridge City Planner Dustin Dowdy said.

The council also voted unanimously to accept the Bainbridge Planning Commission’s recommendation to re-zone the parcel from Light Industrial to Highway Commercial.

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According to Dowdy, the property proposed for development is located on the corner of the industrial park at the intersection of Dothan Road and Airport Road. The property has already been subdivided from the industrial park, he said. The property has 250 feet of frontage along Dothan Road and is 300 feet deep.

Dowdy said his understanding is that Dollar General plans a new store location in addition to its existing stores at 421 N. West Street, located about 1.8 miles away, and at 1616 E. Shotwell Street. The company also has a store in Attapulgus.

According to Dollar General’s Web site, the criteria for where it places new stores includes: locations along retail corridors with good traffic, high visibility and full access to roadways. It also prefers markets where the median household income is less than $75,000 and the population exceeds 4,500 people. The company, which owns all of its stores, has locations in 35 states. Although it prefers anchored retal shopping strips, the company’s free-standing buildings range between 9,000-9,500 square feet.

Dollar General is a Fortune 500 company that boasts more locations than any other retailer in America and has nine distribution centers across the United States. Its Web site is dollargeneral.com