A new value retailer will soon be opening its doors midway between Highlands and Cashiers.
Officials with Dollar General Corporation confirmed Tuesday that the company is building a new store on Cashiers Road (US 64 East) near the intersection of Cherrywood Drive.
“Dollar General is currently under construction on a new location on Cashiers Road in Highlands,” Dollar General Public Relations Representative Angela Petkovic said. “At this time, a store opening is slated for early 2021, but understand that construction progress may alter this date.”
Petkovic added that the store will employ 6–10 staff members and that anyone interested in working at the store can apply online at www.dollargeneral.com/careers.
According to Petkovic, the new store will bring name brand goods at discount prices to the Highlands-Cashiers Plateau. It will be roughly halfway between the Dollar General store in Scaly Mountain and the store in Sapphire.
“Our customers are at the center of all that we do, and meeting customers’ needs is Dollar General’s top priority when choosing store locations,” Petkovic said. “In selecting store sites, we take a number of factors into consideration, carefully evaluating each potential new store location to ensure we can continue to meet our customers’ price, value and selection needs.”
Dollar General bought the property for the new location from Highlands businessman JT Fields through a third-party property developer. Fields initially wanted to put a car storage facility on the lot, before the real estate offer came in.
“After we were under contract we learned that the buyer is a developer who builds Dollar General stores,” Fields said. “This was unexpected and we called our attorney to understand the options. After research and a lot of discussion, it seemed clear that they would locate somewhere on the road between Highlands and Cashiers. Knowing it would be our lot or another, we decided to move forward believing we could minimize the impact. To that end, we negotiated for them to build an upgraded facade costing an additional $35,000 by taking a reduction in the purchase price.”
Fields noted that the end result will be a retail store in a location already designated for that kind of development and the store itself will look “much better” than the Dollar General stores in Scaly Mountain or Sapphire.
“It is unfortunate that there are no zoning restrictions outside of the town limits,” Fields said. “If not selling to the builder meant there wouldn’t ever be a Dollar General on that road, we would have tried to find a way out of the deal.”
Dollar General, headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, operates 16,287 stores across the United States. The new location will be the company’s eighth store in Macon County.