By Fran Daniel Winston-Salem Journal Jan 3, 2017
Three restaurants and a building for offices and retail are going into the Shoppes on Little Creek mixed-use development off Hanes Mall Boulevard.
“We’ve got a couple of lots left, but it’s getting pretty crowded out here,” said Ladd Freeman of Little Creek LLC. “We’re just very excited about all the restaurant services that will help with the multi-family and the offices users that are already here. Things have been pretty busy.”
Freeman and Jay Luke are co-owners of Little Creek LLC, which is the owner and developer of the 57-acre Shoppes on Little Creek.
The first of the new projects to open in the development is expected to be Jersey Mike’s Subs. The restaurant will go in a portion of a newly constructed building, along with Famous Toastery, another eatery.
Jeff Hunt is the franchise owner of the Jersey Mike’s, which will have about 1,576 square feet.
Jersey Mike’s offerings include a variety of cold and hot sub sandwiches and wraps.
Hunt said he knew he wanted to be in the Hanes Mall Boulevard area but said it was hard to find the space for his new restaurant.
“We like the area,” Hunt said. “We waited a couple of years in selecting the right location.”
Hunt, who also owns the Jersey Mike’s on University Parkway, hopes to open his new restaurant in the middle of this month.
Famous Toastery is opening its second location in Winston-Salem, probably in April. The chain has 16 restaurants in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Florida, including a location in downtown Winston-Salem. The new location will be about 3,500 square feet.
“We are a better breakfast concept, so everything we do is made fresh every day,” said Robert Maynard, founder and chief executive of Famous Toastery. “We fly in our own lobster every day. We roast our own turkey. We make our own salad dressing. We have organic ketchups. It’s top of the line. We do what we can to have some of the best quality and the best stuff that you can find.”
Maynard said he likes having a location downtown because it has a nice vibe. But he said he also wanted to be in the Hanes Mall Boulevard area, calling it a great spot that provides a lot of action, good retailers and customer traffic.
Umi Japanese Steakhouse, the third new restaurant in the development, expects to open at 1180 Creekshire Way by early February. Umi means sea or ocean in Japanese.
Co-owner Vince Li said that the 9,000-square-foot restaurant is both a steakhouse and sushi lounge that will be open for lunch and dinner seven days a week.
“We offer a hibachi grill,” Li said. “We offer a sushi bar, and we also offer an inside bar and an outside bar with a patio.”
The hibachi grill items will include steak and seafood, including filet mignon, lobster, salmon, scallops and shrimp “with entertainment on the grill where the chef is in front of you,” Li said.
He also said that the sushi bar will provide fresh sushi.
Li said he co-owns several Japanese steakhouses under different names, but this is the first one in North Carolina.
Easter Creek Partners, a commercial and industrial developer, is constructing a two-story office and retail building that it will own. The building, which is just over 23,000 square feet, should open in April.
Easter Creek Partners, a family-operated business owned by Steve Summer, will occupy about 4,000 square feet on the second floor.
The company is currently in temporary space in St. George Square, a mixed-use development farther west on Hanes Mall Boulevard.
Brian Summer, director of commercial development for Easter Creek Partners, declined to give a name but said a medical tenant just signed a lease to take just over 11,000 square feet.
“They’re taking the entire bottom and a small portion upstairs,” Brian Summer said. “That leaves us with about 4,400 square feet to lease out to somebody else.”
Updates on other projects
The office and retail building is going up near Food Freaks and Beer Geeks, which recently opened in the space formerly occupied by Brew Nerds and Kernel Kustard. The business is operated by Brandon Cassidy and his wife, Marie. Cassidy has been operating his Food Freaks food truck throughout the Triad since 2013.
Within Shoppes on Little Creek, construction continues on the expansion of The Lofts at Little Creek, an upscale apartment development. The project is called Lofts Hillside at Little Creek and is being developed by BSC Holdings Inc., based in Greensboro. The first phase of the expansion, a 148,000-square-foot building will have 88 apartments. The developer hopes to have ready units by late fall.
BSC Holdings is also planning a second building with 86 units, but there is no timeline for when that building will be designed and constructed.
Also, there is interest in the former Lone Star Steakhouse building in Shoppes on Little Creek, said Tyler Kotis, the leasing and brokerage manager for Kotis Properties in Greensboro. But he said there is nothing to report yet.
Shoppes on Little Creek is almost completely developed. It has two lots left for tenants — 2 acres near its entrance and Umi Japanese Steakhouse, and just over a half-acre in front of Beer Geeks.