The former Kmart on West Walnut Avenue in Dalton is empty now, waiting for workers to begin tearing down part of the building to make way for a Food City.

DALTON, Ga. — The Kmart has cleared out of the building on West Walnut Avenue. The property has been fenced off, and workers are preparing to demolish half the building to make way for a new Food City grocery store.

“It’s going to go slowly at first because we have to get into the building and get it ready to be selectively demolished,” said Jim Otis, the Omaha, Neb., developer who is developing the site.

“We are going to tear down the eastern portion of the building to make way for a building pad that Food City can build a brand-new, roughly 50,000-square-foot store on,” he said. 

“The balance of the building to the west will be remodeled to accommodate Ulta, Ross and PetSmart,” he said.

Ross is a discount department store chain headquartered in California, and Ulta is a chain of cosmetics and skincare stores based in Illinois.

Otis has been working with the property’s owners for more than two years to redevelop the site. He believes Dalton residents will like what is planned for the property, which will be anchored by the Food City.

“This site, close to the interstate, is really where they wanted to be,” he said earlier this year.

He said the plans call for several “out buildings” to go up on the site in front of the Food City.

“We are adding a 6,000-square-foot building on the west side of the property. Rak Outfitters will go there,” he said.

Gib Roland, owner of Calhoun-based Rak Oufitters, said his Dalton store will be moving from the Kroger Shopping Center.

“We’ve really outgrown our current space in Dalton. We wanted to remain in that same area,” he said. “This will almost double our floor space, allowing us to carry more products. It’s right across the street from our current location, so it will be convenient for all of our customers.”

Otis says he expects the Food City to open in mid-October.

“They are building their own building, so they have their own timeline,” he said. “But we will be done. We will have all the common area, the parking lot and the associated improvements, done. We’ll have the Ross, Ulta section ready and have the out buildings up. We’ll still have to do some interior work for some of those tenants. But that is our timeline, and we are hopeful we can stay on it.”

Sears Holdings, which owns Kmart, announced in December the store would be closing.

Coldwell Banker Kinard Realty worked with the owners of the property to put the deal together.

“This is a great site and Walnut Avenue is a great retail corridor,” Bill Blackwood, an owner at Coldwell Banker Kinard Realty, said when the project was announced in January.

“Food City is a a quality operation. All of these stores are, and I think Dalton residents are going to be really happy when this opens,” he said.

Mayor Dennis Mock said at that time he was excited to hear of plans for the site.

“This is a prime piece of commercial real estate that has been underutilized,” he said. “It will be great for the city to have name brand stores on that location.”

Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce President Rob Bradham agrees the site has been underutilized for several years.

“It will be nice to see greater economic activity and vitality there,” he said.