By Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com
Ohio-based commercial developer CASTO held a small ceremony Wednesday to mark the long-awaited, official start of revitalizations to the Riverbirch Corner property in west Sanford that will soon be home to a Target store and several other new retailers.
Area leaders and residents alike have seen Riverbirch as a decaying eyesore for a number of years, and Wednesday’s event was the culmination of work to get the property into the hands of a developer willing to revitalize it. CASTO purchased the property in 2022, but it took until last fall to get city and county governments to agree on an aid package worth about $6.4 million. In exchange, CASTO committed to a near-complete teardown of the property and to rebuild it with Target and a new-to-market grocery store as anchors.
Those big ticket anchors are expected to generate $60 million-plus in new capital investment, $100 million in annual retail sales, and more than $3 million in new property and local sales tax revenue each year, far outpacing the public investment in the project in just a few years.
“CASTO is truly excited to not only become part of this community, but to bring Riverbirch back to Sanford,” said CASTO representative Shannon Dixon, citing the new businesses, restaurants, green space, and pedestrian areas the development is expected to bring. “It’s been a long journey, but we’re getting closer.”
Jimmy Randolph, CEO of the Sanford Area Growth Alliance, emceed the event and even noted its date being a little ironic because of an April Fool’s joke by The Rant in 2015 about a Target coming to town.
“To those folks who are skeptical, I can tell you there are no April Fools here,” he said. “It might seem like we’re a little bit spoiled by all the progress lately, but it’s a sign we’re growing. CASTO had a vision for this site and was willing to take a significant risk with a property that was in decline, and the city and the county really stepped up to help a project that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. In our eyes, transforming a blighted property into a new asset was worth every bit of it.”
Randolph also credited Adcock Real Estate with brokering the property’s sale in 2022.
Wednesday’s event didn’t include a full start to demolition of the property, although machinery was on hand to knock down a ceremonial bit of an empty Riverbirch parcel that was once home to a Sam Goody store. Sanford Mayor Rebecca Wyhof Salmon said the event marked not just the start of a revitalization, but a new beginning altogether.
“We have an opportunity to not just transform Riverbirch back into what it was, but into something that’s completely new and exciting,” she said.
There’s no official date set for completion, although CASTO has said they hope the center will open in 2027.
So sad, I was hoping they would at least re-build a new Belks there , it was a favorite for a lot of people !
I know. I am so disappointed that Belks closed. I shopped there for everything, and my entire family. I have been shopping there since the first day they opened. It was convenient because it had everything I always needed and I could get there in 5 minutes and and grab something to eat a Sarkus to bring back for the family. Also it didn’t cost a arm and a leg for gas to run over there.
Does anyone know what is going on in Kendale shopping center ? Parts of it is being torn away also
Part of it was listed as being developed into one of those self-storage facilities.
Such a great thing for growth.
That’s weird. I grew up in Sanford and have no memory of a Sam Goody’s. I remember when Riverbirch was shiny and new.