Belk Plans Big Mount Pleasant Expansion

Belk at Mount Pleasant Towne Centre has plans to nearly double its Mount Pleasant footprint by October 2014, according to media reports. The planned expansion will add a parking deck to the northern Hwy. 17 shopping mall and will make the store one of the Charlotte-based retailer's flagship stores.

By this fall, Belk will be well on its way to doubling the size of its footprint at Mount Pleasant Towne Centre and turning the shop into a flagship store, Tim Belk, chairman and CEO, told the Post and Courier.

In the first phase, the men’s department will move across the parking lot by November to the 30,000-square-foot building that once housed Earth Fare and then a short-lived Guy Harvey restaurant, the newspaper reports.

The existing 82,000-square-foot store will be expanded by 30,000 square feet by October 2014 and include a parking deck that will allow entry into the store. The expansion will occur into a parking lot on the north side of the Belk building, causing Palmetto Moon and the shopping center’s management offices to relocate in the mall.

Belk opened a Towne Centre in 1999. The site has already been expanded once in 2005 when Belk added a housewares section.

Belk's largest presence — roughly 130,000 square feet spread over two stores — is at Greenville Mall. The retail chain operates 306 locations across 19 states. It's the largest family owned retail chain in the U.S.

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