By GARRICK FELDMAN
AND ALIYA FELDMAN
Leader editors
Two brothers who used to shop there as youngsters in the 1960s have bought the Jacksonville Shopping Center.
Mike and Phil Sentell are the new owners of the center and are planning to remodel the outside and inside of the 50-year-old strip mall.
Mike Wilson and his partners Jim Peacock and Jim O’Brien, doing business as MJMJ LLC, sold the 12-acre, 130,000-square-foot shopping center to the brothers.
The Sentells, of Greenbrier, are making a $5 million investment in the project, which includes extensive renovation plans.
“We will completely reface the outside and remodel the inside,” Phil Sentell said Friday.
He said the city’s oldest shopping center evokes the 1950s, which is why he wants to give it a more up-to-date look.
“We all remember shopping there with our parents in the 1960s,” said Sentell, who grew up in Beebe. “There was no McCain Mall back then.”
The Sentells are hoping to attract new tenants. Many of them moved out last winter, before plans to turn the strip into an Asian mall fell through.
Some long-time tenants were given non-renewal notices of their leases, while others said they chose to leave. At least one business closed. Storefronts formerly occupied by Stroman’s Furniture, Abdin Jewelers, Crafton’s Furni-ture and Executive Cleaners are now vacant.
Business owners who occupied Jacksonville Shopping Center started hearing that Sue Khoo — owner of Unique Furniture that occupies the middle of the shopping center — had planned to buy the strip mall last summer.
They believed Khoo had plans to create an Asian-inspired shopping complex with restaurants and a grocery store, but financing for the project fell through.
She hoped to buy the shopping center by the end of January.
Khoo had proposed buying the strip mall that occupies the entire 600 block of West Main Street.
She is leasing the 35,000-square-foot space for her business, in addition to three other businesses.
A “for rent” sign now sits in the lawn on Main Street in front of the shopping center. There were plans for a grocery store to rent one of the vacant spots.
Chamber’s Drug has occupied that space since the 50s. Owner Ron Lucas said he’s staying there for several more years.
Crafton’s and Abdin’s have moved to 2126 N. First in the old Wal-Mart shopping center in Jacksonville.
Stroman’s also moved into its new space on the other side of Jacksonville, to 1811 N. First St., next to Payless Shoes.
That Little Flea Market was the first to receive notice to vacate.
The owner leased space in the Jacksonville Shopping Center for 15 years but has relocated to 345 S. James St. in the Knight’s Grocery store complex.
