When developers' plans for new retailers at locations around the bypass make news, a frequent comment from the public is, "Why don't they reuse some of these vacant stores in town instead?"

As 2026 dawns, some of that type of redevelopment appears to be happening with some certainty at one long-vacant Statesboro retail space, and more as a spur for anybody's guess what's coming next at a separate even longer-vacant storefront, both on Northside Drive East.

City of Statesboro officials in May 2025 announced that "a national home furnishings retailer" would be coming to occupy a portion of the former Kmart store space in Southern Square Shopping Center. A further city announcement in October confirmed that it would be a HomeGoods store. Incidentally, HomeGoods' parent company is TJX, which also owns the Marshalls and T.J. Maxx store brands and — as throngs of area shoppers evidently knew during the holiday season — there is a T.J. Maxx in the Statesboro Crossing retail center off Brannen Street at the bypass.

"HomeGoods" signs went up on the front of the former Kmart store shortly after the fall announcement, but the "Coming Soon" banner also remained up through Christmas. Reporters peering through the front glass saw some construction lifts — and at least eight people working there as of Monday — but an expanse of unfinished floor and no shelving or merchandise.

"The short answer is, I don't have an official date," Alan Gross, retail recruiter for the city of Statesboro and Georgia Southern University's Business Innovation Group, said last week. "It was a pretty massive remodel that they have going on, so I guess it's just taking a little longer than they anticipated."

Nobody had promised an earlier opening, but there had been local hopes for the holiday season after the development was taking place too late for the university's fall move-in.

The Statesboro Herald sent an email to a TJX site selection executive Friday seeking any info on when the store may open in 2026 or other details and then added another suggested contact for a re-send Monday after getting a holiday week autoreply. 

Not a 'small' fish

HomeGoods remains the biggest catch so far for Gross, who has sometimes been called Statesboro's "small-business recruiter."

But "the city officially calls it retail recruiter," he said. "I'll go after big fish like HomeGoods and the coffee shop that's getting ready to open on Main Street. So it could be a big one or a small one. ... My mandate is just to recruit retail within the city limits."

The city and university created the job he holds as a joint project, effective in January 2023. Gross' office is in Georgia Southern's "city campus," or Statesboro City Center, facility on East Main Street near City Hall, but the city government funds his salary.

His efforts recruiting HomeGoods lasted "almost two years to the day" from when he made the first official contact with a TJX representative to the day he received official word that the lease had been signed.

Asked about its impact on the local economy, he said the company doesn't release retail sales figures for a typical store, but "on average, HomeGoods, at least according to their public filings," has about 100 employees per location.

The Statesboro Kmart store closed in spring 2018, after the Sears and Kmart brands had consolidated under Sears Holdings Inc. and those old-time retailers continued their national downward spiral in the age of Walmart and the internet. The Kmart in Southern Square originally encompassed more than 90,000 square feet of retail space. But Planet Fitness has occupied about 22,000 square feet at the west end since 2021, when it was renovated for that purpose.

Of the more than 65,000 square feet remaining, the HomeGoods is expected to occupy less than half.

"Unless you're dealing with big-box, most retailers just aren't that big anymore," Gross said. "So what's left is about 44,000 square feet that's still going to be vacant. … That was the original report. We'll see what the remodel comes back in as."

Incidentally, the actual building and most of the rest of the shopping center are owned by Southern Square LLC, which in turn is controlled by Hull Property Group, headquartered in Augusta. 

Not THAT Publix

Meanwhile, on the other side of Northside Drive/U.S. Highway 80 behind the Wendy's, contractor fences and work trucks have been the obvious signs of renovations, or at least interior demolition, going on at the big central space in the back of the University Commons shopping center. That center is officially owned by Statesboro University Village LLC, but the limited liability company also has the same Augusta business address as Hull Property Group.

Although three restaurants occupy other portions of University Commons, the flagship store location has been vacant for more than a quarter century, since Publix Supermarkets' first foray into Statesboro ended circa 1998. The supermarket operated at that location from early 1994 but went out of business in less than five years.

When Publix returned to Statesboro, it was with a newly designed store across town in a freshly built shopping center, Eagles Corner, that opened off Old Register Road outside the bypass in December 2023 and continues to thrive.

So when people who have been around here awhile say "the old Publix," they mean the University Commons location, and something is stirring there, but what it is city officials don't know or aren't saying.

In an email reply on Dec. 18, city Planning and Development Director Justin Williams said it was "just some clearance."

"They are looking to actually put a tenant in there, but we don't officially know who it is," he wrote.

The Herald also sent an email Friday, Dec. 26, and Monday to Hull Property Group's communications office, but hadn't heard back by Monday night.

Monday afternoon, Dec. 29, a truck with a long, low trailer appeared to be bringing some kind of equipment to the old storefront. Phoned, Williams said the expected tenant will be a retailer. The reporter asked because there has also been some local talk about data centers. This apparently won't be that but a retail business, and city officials are waiting on a further permit application to learn more.

"That's about the extent I've got, some type of retail," Williams said. "I think they're being very tightlipped about everything at this point."

Mayor Jonathan McCollar revealed no new information but offered a comment on both developments.

"I like to be candid and say, 'I don't know,' " he said. "I haven't talked to the staff about what new business is going into the old Publix, but what I will say is that it's exciting to see these places that had been sitting for a long time now being utilized by new business coming to our area, and we want to continue to support this type of growth."