Retail space slowly filling in Dothan
Dothan, AL — When Kathy Harrell decided to open her own boutique and gift shop last summer, she looked at retail property for about a year, finding all types of vacant properties.
Rent was certainly a factor in where she set up shop, as a high overhead would put her at a disadvantage from the get-go as a new small business owner. But the two things that mattered most for Harrell were geographic location related to traffic patterns and convenience for shoppers.
She opened Something Special in Fountain Plaza on Ross Clark Circle at Bauman Drive.
“The first priority was something easily accessible,” Harrell said. “Here, people can just drive up and go in, get their gift, get it wrapped, pay for it and drive away. They don’t have a long walk. I have some elderly customers who love driving right up to the front of the store. Sometimes I go out to them and they never have to come in.”
The 48,000-square-foot Fountain Plaza shopping center, anchored by Ted’s Jewelers, is an older development that is doing well in a city that has added a significant amount of new retail/office space in the last 12 years. Constructed in 1972, Fountain Plaza currently has few empty suites, with one about to be occupied by a new restaurant next door to Harrell’s shop.
