THE ISSUE: A strong stable economy is built on investors willing to take a chance and stand behind their investments. We applaud the retailers who have proven their faith in Paris and Lamar County.
The time is ripe for retail, and Paris Towne Center is stepping onto the leading edge with expanded retail space and the announcement of a new restaurant chain.
“The retail economy is better now than it has been in the past two or three years,” Rickey Hayes of Retail Attractions, working with Paris Economic Development Corp., said recently. “Retailers who haven’t done new stores at all are starting to venture back out in to the market place. It’s a good time to buy real estate, a good time to build. It’s a good time overall to be doing new stores.”
Build it and they will come? You bet. It just takes the guts to invest some big bucks and a lot of hard work and the willingness of the community to spend its money in its hometown.
With an eye on the future and a burgeoning retail market, the Paris Towne Center owners took the chance to sink almost $1 million in the shopping mall to build additional retail space and to eventually spruce up the parking lot with new lighting and landscaping.
The project began in May, and Stalworth Real Estate signed the first lease with Rusty Taco last week, with a few more businesses interested in the last one or two spaces in the new building.
New business is booming in Paris, bringing renewed life and providing more ways for people to buy here. With consumers able to spend money on the things they need and want within the community, more and more national brands will look to Lamar County as a viable place to open stores here.
“Even in small and rural markets there is a great deal of demand by the national retailers and restaurants to secure a spot to maximize their revenue potential in a particular locations, : Hayes said.
Consumers can help the area’s leaders, both government and businessmen, keep the momentum, ensuring Paris and Lamar County as well as the wider trade area surrounding the community will reap the harvest that has traditionally been siphoned towards the Metroplex.