AdVenture Development announces first retail tenants for Eastfield project

By RANDY CAPPS

SELMA – Ad Venture Development, LLC, recently announced its first retail tenants at Eastfield, a planned mixed-use development in Selma.

Hobby Lobby, Old Navy, Ulta Beauty, Marshalls, Ross, Burlington and Five Below will be the first tenants in Phase 1 of a 200,000-square foot retail development in Eastfield, located at exits 97 and 98 off Interstate 95.

“We’re very excited about it,” AdVenture Development President Kevin Dougherty said. “It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been moving dirt, moving roads and putting utilities in, but it’s great when the tenants start to commit. … They recognize the opportunity that Selma and Johnston County present.”

Construction will begin in spring 2023 with planned opening dates in 2024. Eastfield is a 3 million-square foot master planned, mixed-use development comprised of a business park, retail, medical, coworking, hospitality, entertainment as well as senior and residential living on approximately 400 acres of land.

The time frame for AdVenture Development’s plans for Eastfield, and other projects in the area, was affected by COVID. Despite some delays, Dougherty and his team kept moving forward.

“It is frustrating,” he said. “People don’t realize the level of detail and the amount of time, energy and risk involved in this business. COVID was a very difficult time. For our existing tenants, we had to amend every lease. We were ready to do this a year a mixed-use development in ago, but with the supply chain and the state of the economy, it wasn’t time.

“It’s been a difficult time, but the good thing is that we’ve got a lot of great relationships with the Town of Selma and with the county, and all our partners in this project remained positive. The need and the void that we were serving was still there.”

Recently completed projects in the development include Shield Republic, Carolina Wholesale Flooring and Old North State Food Hall at Triangle East Collaborative and Do Good Foods at Eastfield Business Park. Eastfield Coworking, an event/conference center and a new Marriott Springhill

Suites are in the works for 2023.

“The idea that a group of friends or family members can all have their choice of cuisine in one place is a gamechanger,” Dougherty said of the food hall.

There are loads of moving parts, and plenty of work yet to be done, but those two exits on I-95 are going to look a lot different in a few years than they do today.

“The goal is to deliver a product that Selma and Johnston County are proud of and happy to have,” he said.

To learn more about Eastfield and AdVenture Development, LLC, visit adventuredev.com.