Drive north toward Diana, along the fastest-growing stretch of commerce in Gregg County.

Dotting the roadway, “For Sale” signs announce acres of skinny pine trees and fields that have been cleared in anticipation of new building. Strings of retailers, car lots and other commercial properties line the major thoroughfare, U.S. 259.

It’s no secret that Longview is sprawling northward. That’s where the land is.

“Inner-city Longview is built out. There are not larger tracts available to develop,” said Michael Shirley, Longview’s interim city planner. “A lot of growth north obviously is for available land.”

City planners are projecting rapid expansion over the next three decades to the north and northeast of town. The developed areas of Longview within Loop 281 and west of Eastman Road, however, are expected to decline in population.

As established retailers pick up and move north, they leave behind gaping holes in older, established retail landscapes – some that would appear to be in the most desirable areas in Longview, based on the city’s demographic evaluations and traffic studies.

Take the corner of Gilmer Road and Loop 281, for instance.

Prime spots sit empty

On paper, Gilmer Road and the loop seem to form a prime intersection for retail business. Traffic is heavy, and the people who live nearby are among the wealthier residents in Longview.

But the large space that once housed the Stein Mart department store sits vacant, and Stein Mart’s neighbor, Hobby Lobby, is moving to a more northeastern spot that became available when Target jumped even farther north, to a brand-new development on North Eastman Road at Hawkins Parkway.

Head west, and the former Wal-Mart on Loop 281 in the Pine Tree area also remains empty. It closed several years ago to make room for a new Wal-Mart Supercenter further north of the loop, on Gilmer Road.

“We’ve seen a lot of that jumping locations,” Shirley said. “It’s not as cost-effective to level an area and start over. Unfortunately, it’s causing the city to push out and sprawl out, because you can go out and buy farmland that is cheaper to start new than to go in and rehab. A lot of times remodeling is very expensive.”

Longview no different than Dallas

Retail patterns in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex also apply to Longview, said Matt Strickland, vice president of the Dallas real estate development and investment firm Weber & Company. Strickland’s company developed Target’s new Longview location on North Eastman Road and has developed sites for several Targets in and around the Metroplex.

Big boxes such as Target try to find undeveloped areas that are targeted for future growth, he said.

“If the population and demand are still strong in the existing location, and there is an opportunity to redevelop, I think retailers will consider that,” Strickland said. “But given the rapid expansion at least here in the Metroplex, retailers try to get in front of growth. It has prompted them to search for sites more on the perimeter, and ultimately tie up the land to service that growth.”

The way of the future

Longview’s next major development on the north side of town is slated for timber land held for more than a century by the family of former mayor Earl Roberts Jr.

The Roberts family plans an upscale mixed-use “lifestyle center” that it has named Oak Creek, with plans for restaurants, boutiques and offices, said Don Carroll, a principal partner in the Tyler-based company that is marketing the development.

“That’s where retail centers are heading as a whole,” Carroll said. “A lifestyle center is a gathering place for customers and shoppers. It offers a variety of types of goods and services, and it’s more community oriented. It’s a place to gather, a place to relax, a place to shop, a place to eat.”

The nearly 150 acres saddle McCann Road and North Judson Road, north of Loop 281.

“That area north of the loop is, in our minds, a very strategic part of Longview’s future growth. We feel that eventually there will be more and more rooftops locating in that area of Longview, and with rooftops come restaurants, retail and offices,” said Carroll, with the real estate firm Landbridge Commercial Properties, formerly the Perry B. Hall Co.

Lifestyle vs. retail

The architecture is appealing. The boutiques are nice. People enjoy lifestyle centers, and they have been very successful in the past five to 10 years, said Strickland, the developer of Longview’s new Target.

“It’s truly an entertainment destination,” he said. “You can walk around and make a day of it.”

But that’s not necessarily the force that drives Target stores, he added.

“Retail centers offer everyday services and products that people need to get in and get out and get on with their lives,” he said. “I think different types of consumers at certain times need to run in and get something from Target, and other times they are looking for that entertainment and wanting to have more of a full shopping experience.”

In the long term, Strickland said, lifestyle centers and more traditional retail strip centers will coexist peacefully.

“We particularly believe you need to stay with the fundamentals of real estate, and that is great signage, good ingress and egress, well-lit centers, plenty of parking, key tenants,” he said. “Getting back to real estate basics are ultimately what consumers are going to want.”

Oak Creek buzz

Longview’s economic players are excited about the plans for the Roberts family’s lifestyle center.

“You see it working in some larger cities. People can work or shop near their homes and get out and walk and enjoy and not really use their cars,” Shirley said. “It’s more of an experience that replicates a downtown. You feel like you’re in a historic district.”

Carroll said it is too early to say what amenities will be offered at this particular lifestyle center.

“In some you see a place for outdoor gatherings and concerts on a smaller scale. There’s parklike areas for the young children. The sidewalks, the parks, the amphitheater, all that ties together as a gathering place,” he said. “This just gives an additional alternative.

“Commercial retail business is in a constant evolution. It continually reinvents itself over time to stay at pace with what the consumers are looking for. They have to continually reinvent themselves.”

And, in Longview, move north.