The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

Tenants of the Garrison Square shopping center hope their new neighbor’s freshly baked pies will breathe fresh life into the half-empty McLoughlin Heights complex.

The Peachtree Restaurant & Pie House is expected to open its second Vancouver location this month in the former Shari’s Restaurant space at 8000 E. Mill Plain Blvd. Shari’s vacated the space 10 months ago after lease negotiations failed between the Beaverton, Ore.-based restaurant chain and Kimco Realty Corp. of New York, which owns the retail complex. Failed discussions were also responsible for other recent Garrison Square vacancies, according to one of the center’s remaining occupants.

“People wanted to renegotiate their leases, and the management wouldn’t work with them,” said Bruce Auld, owner of the center’s Ace Hardware store.

Officials from Kimco, a real estate investment trust, did not respond to requests for comment.

Former tenants include the Sports Page restaurant, a medical supply and equipment store and the 24,000-square-foot anchor, a Supermax discount store. Garrison Square’s remaining tenants include Starbucks, the Manning Academy Beauty School and Spa, the Mexico Lindo Restaurant, Haircuts Now and the Ace store.

Auld said he expects the new Peachtree, at the highly visible corner of Mill Plain and Garrison, to generate more traffic for the complex.

“I’m glad to see the Peachtree moving in. It’s a great restaurant,” he said.

Peachtree owner Issac Idakar said he will continue operating his flagship restaurant in Hazel Dell, which opened seven years ago at 6600 N.E. Highway 99.

He said he expects the Garrison Square site to accommodate more patrons from the east side of town.

“A lot of our customers from the Heights said they would love to see us at that location,” Idakar, who formerly owned a second Peachtree Restaurant at 4400 E. Fourth Plain Blvd., said.

Idakar said the new restaurant will employ a staff of 35 workers, including servers, cooks and the pastry chefs who will make the restaurant and pie outlet’s house-made pies. The pies, with fillings such as sour cream lemon, strawberry-rhubarb and peach, are sold whole or by the slice. The restaurant will host an Aug. 20 grand opening with free slices of pie, Idakar said.

In the meantime, potential tenants continue to express interest in Garrison Square, said Pam Lindloff, a vice president at NAI Norris Beggs & Simpson’s Vancouver office, adding that Kimco believes that a grocery store would be ideal the former Supermax site.

“That would be our first preference for the space,” she said. “Other than that, we are giving regular tours of the property and actively pursuing retail tenants.”

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