Fayetteville Working To Fill Hundreds Of Vacant Retail Spaces

There are close to 500 retail vacancies throughout the city, including residential property.

"From our point of view, any vacant property is something we don't like to see, we would really like to see every one of them filled up," says Ben Brown, the city's chief development officer.

Brown says that there are a number of different reasons why there is so much vacant retail property throughout Fayetteville.

Cautious spending and relocation are just two reasons.

"Some people are moving from older properties to newer properties," he says.

One area that is not filled with empty glass is downtown. As the focus of revitalization efforts, what used to be vacant stores along Hay Street now have tenants.

"It just took away from the neighborhood up here. We used to have a lot of business up here. We don't have that much business up here [any] more," says shopper Joyce Grant.

Shoppers hope that focus to fill space will now shift to other parts of the city.