University Station, between the Chick-fil-A that will be a part of it and the separate Eagles Corner shopping center which includes Publix, is taking shape as the second retail center along Tormenta Way parallel to Statesboro's Veterans Memorial Parkway.
In addition to Chick-fil-A, which hasn't opened but now has its sign up, University Station has spaces leased for two restaurants in the "fast-casual" nationwide chains Blaze Pizza and Wayback Burgers, plus a Hotworx fitness studio and a liquor store.
Other spaces remain available for rent or yet to be built.
Along with Eagles Corner and the Tormenta Stadium complex, University Station is part of the overall Old Register Road Tax Allocation District, but these entities have different ownership. Watkins Real Estate Group, which develops shopping centers with Publix supermarkets as their anchor tenant, had purchased the property nearest Old Register Road between the parkway and Tormenta Way for Eagles Corner, and 16 months after the Publix opened, almost all of the adjoining shopping center storefronts and neighboring outparcels have been claimed, most by now operating businesses.
But except for one Watkins outparcel behind Publix, VSB Bypass LLC controls the land east from there to Akins Boulevard Extension and is developing University Station on it. Geoff Block, now of Bluffton, South Carolina, and Adam Kent, friends since their student days at Tulane, reportedly are principal investors in VSB Bypass. Riverwood Properties in Atlanta has been marketing the center's buildings to commercial tenants.
"Under this group (VSB Bypass LLC) they're just doing this smaller development now — it's not small, but it's smaller than; they have additional land around here as well, but right now they're just focused on this," said Marrissa Chanin Faulk, director of leasing at Riverwood Properties. "The Chick-fil-A is in a ground lease on the main corner, and then we have three buildings that we're leasing and then a potential opportunity for another ground lease."
The Chick-fil-A will be the Georgia-based fast-food chain's third location in Statesboro, after the freestanding Northside Drive franchise and the restaurant licensed to Georgia Southern University inside the Russell Union building. Originally "Building E" on the University Station tenant list, it is the nearest to completion.
Blaze Pizza
Building C is the one that has taken shape nearest Chick-fil-A and parallel to the bypass.
"In Building C we have Blaze Pizza that's been signed, we have a liquor store that's been signed and we have one more vacancy there," Faulk said Friday.
Blaze Pizza restaurants operate in 38 states and six countries, according to the company website. The interactive map shows relatively few of these restaurants in Georgia. There is one in Brunswick.
The liquor store will be Southern Liquors, for which Statesboro City Council previously granted a location reservation under terms of the city's Alcoholic Beverages Ordinance.
The vacant suite, C-3, measures 2,375 square feet; Southern Liquors, 2,855 square feet; and Blaze Pizza, 3,150 square feet, according to an annotated site map in the University Station online brochure.
Hotworx and Wayback
Building B, the larger, longer building that also lies parallel to the bypass and to Tormenta Way, is a little farther from Akins Boulevard.
"In B we have Hotworx, … and then we have Wayback Burgers as well," she said.
Hotworx is a "fitness studio" chain that combines infrared sauna with virtually-instructed exercise programs in disciplines such as yoga and Pilates. Its website lists more than 500 locations in 44 states and four other countries. There's one in Pooler.
Wayback Burgers has more than 170 locations worldwide, including in 35 U.S. states, according to information on its LinkedIn page. Hinesville, and Pooler again, already have Wayback Burgers restaurants.
The University Station real estate brochure indicates that spaces ranging from 1,708 square feet to 4,852 square feet are available in Building B. It was originally drawn for up to six restaurant-type spaces, together measuring 15,297 square feet.
Nearest the neighboring Eagles Corner shopping center, University Station's Building A will be situated perpendicular from Veterans Memorial Parkway and parallel to the back of Publix. This building has only just begun to "go vertical," and is listed in the brochure for "delivery September 2024." So no tenants have been announced yet for the adaptable retail and restaurant spaces ranging from 1,230 square feet up to the entire building, 8,020 square feet. Construction workers with a crane and boom lifts were installing steel framing Monday.
"Building D" is the "ground lease option" site with space for up to a 6,000-square-foot building.
More to be announced
The agency also had an offer pending for a 5,000-square-foot clothing store to go into one of the buildings, but the lease had not been signed yet, so Faulk could not identify the company.
University Station is planned to encompass up to 38,255 square feet. Riverwood's brochure gives an estimate of 26,791 vehicles per day average traffic past the site.
Bulloch County real estate records, accessed online, show that VSB Development LLC (technically separate from VSB Bypass LLC) obtained control of tracts in the area totaling almost 267 acres in a 68-year lease (stated to be renewable for up to 40 more years) from Edward Akins Farms LP in September 2021.
Darin Van Tassell, president of the Tormenta FC soccer franchise and with his wife owner of The Clubhouse family amusement center, also remains an investor in the VSB properties. He was the original spokesperson for the Old Register Road Tax Allocation District proposal, and Riverwood's marketing of University Station to commercial tenants touts that the retail center is near the "multi-purpose soccer stadium," and that plans for the area "feature a movie theater, two hotels, apartments and office space."
"All of that remains in the overall design plan for sure," Van Tassell replied to a text Monday. "After the successful recruitment of Publix and the development of that center, the retail portion of University Station certainly has received the emphasis first."