Contract with chain falls through, but major developments still planned for Ramsey Street
A proposal to build a grocery store along the Ramsey Street corridor fell through recently because of a road improvement project in the area, a Fayetteville councilwoman revealed in an April radio interview.
Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen told radio host Jeff "Goldy" Goldberg during the April 16 broadcast of WFNC's show, "Good Morning Fayetteville," that Publix was poised to build at 5818 Ramsey St. but that the contract "fell through in the 11th hour."
Jensen and her brother, former Cumberland County Commissioner Jimmy Keefe, make up Keefe Enterprises Inc. and own the vacant lot near Methodist University where Publix was considering.
“A lot of the reason is that there is some work getting ready to be done on the highway,” Jensen said on the show. “I think that as a representative of the district, I just realized that the reasoning they gave us was because of the work that is going to be done on Ramsey Street.”
What's the Ramsey Street road improvement project?
The Ramsey Street road improvement project will target approximately 9 miles of Ramsey Street, from Rowan/Grove streets to slightly beyond Slocomb Road in Cumberland County, according to the NCDOT project page. The proposed enhancements would widen Ramsey Street to six lanes, with new sidewalks for pedestrians and accommodations for bicyclists to help alleviate traffic congestion.
“I was a little bit concerned that I had never seen the plan,” Jensen told the Observer last month. “Looking at it, it could be a lot worse, but it’s proof that we are a growing city.”
The estimated total cost for this project, funded by the N.C. Department of Transportation’s State Transportation Improvement Program, is $143.2 million. Environmental studies began in 2023 and construction is slated to start at the end of 2029.
Jensen said that the north side of Fayetteville is the “bedroom” of Cumberland County, with more than 3,000 commuters traveling to and from Raleigh daily due to the lower cost of living here. She emphasized the importance of focusing on infrastructure to prepare for the upcoming growth.
“My brother and I believe that Publix was the perfect fit. We had started talking to them probably a year and a half ago, and we signed a non-disclosure so we were hopeful that something would be there,” Jensen said. She said the fact that Publix was considering opening on the north side, shows that the area is attractive to developers.
“There are grocery stores that will be here, it may not be this year and it might not be next year, but we have a grocery store box coming,” she said.
NCDOT adds to the conversation
Andrew Barksdale, an NCDOT spokesperson, said in an email recently that development discussions for the vacant lot owned by Keefe Enterprises were “only preliminary and included what the developer, through their engineers, would have to do in order to have access to Ramsey Street for their development.”
He said the improvements along Ramsey Street are still in the development phase.
“We have high-level concepts, which are mentioned on our project page, but nothing specific yet that we are ready to present to the public for feedback on. We hope to do that within the next year," Barksdale said.
He said that accommodations for pedestrians and cyclists, including marked crosswalks, pedestrian signals, sidewalks, and possibly a greenway, will be established. He likened the proposed greenway to the Cape Fear River Trail, a 10-foot-wide paved path for walkers, joggers, bicyclists and other nonmotorized transportation.
Jensen said that she is seeking a better understanding of what the Ramsey Street improvement plans will consist of and that she is talking to NCDOT to figure out what’s best for District 7 moving forward.
Reporter Lizmary Evans covers growth and development for The Fayetteville Observer. You can reach her at LEvans@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: What grocery stores are coming to Ramsey Street in Fayetteville, NC?
