By Cindy Schroeder
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FORT WRIGHT - More than three years after it was proposed, construction of a Wal-Mart Super Center will begin early next year.

Meanwhile, work continues on $2.5 million in road improvements that will benefit the Shoppes of Fort Wright development. A multi-tenant building at Ky. 17 and Highland Pike is under construction as well, and several businesses recently have purchased lots surrounding the planned Wal-Mart.

Businesses would include Texas Roadhouse and Ruby Tuesday restaurants, at least two banks, a Buffalo Wild Wings and a variety of service-oriented businesses.

"I think it ended up being a win-win for everyone,'' said David Birdsall, vice president of development for Regency Centers of the Midwest. "We're getting a good project that'll provide employment in the community and help the city's tax base. Fort Wright's also getting millions of dollars of road improvements that needed to happen regardless of our development.''

The road improvements include adding extra turn lanes to Highland Pike, Orphanage Road and Ky. 17 and installing traffic lights at each end of the development's access road. Work was to be finished by Oct. 1. But recent rains have delayed the completion date by a month, said Kevin Rust, pre-construction branch manager at the Kentucky highway department's Northern Kentucky office.

"This is normally our prime construction season, but the last two weeks we haven't gotten two consecutive days without some sort of rainfall,'' Rust said. "Now we're looking at November 1 as the new completion date for the road improvements.''

The developer and the Kentucky highway department are paying for the road work, Fort Wright officials have said.

The city also has a letter of irrevocable credit from the developer, agreeing to cover all road improvements in case a lack of money prompts the state to cancel road projects.

Wal-Mart now plans to start building its 183,197-square-foot store by February, said a spokeswoman at the company's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. The Fort Wright store will be 10 percent smaller than the one originally proposed, but it will sell groceries.

By prohibiting gas stations and restricting fast-food outlets near the site, the city expects to reduce additional traffic by about 20 percent, Fort Wright Administrator Larry Klein said.

"A July 2000 study showed 38,000 trips per day (near the Wal-Mart site),'' Rust said. "With the site fully developed, we're showing an additional 18,000 cars a day.''

Rust said the additional traffic won't all materialize by next spring. "It's going to take several years for that site to fully develop,'' he said.

Because of the expected interest in the Ky. 17 corridor, Klein said, Fort Wright officials are seeking proposals for a land use study for the section between Howard Litzler Drive and old Ky. 17.

"We want to make sure we find the right mix of development for that area,'' Klein said. "We want to avoid a big, long retail corridor.''

Fort Wright officials required that improvements to roads in and around the Wal-Mart site be finished before the super center opens. That restriction does not apply to the smaller businesses.

Regency Center's fully leased, 20,000-square-foot, multi-tenant building is scheduled to open by December 2003, Birdsall said. The one-story brick building at the corner of Ky. 17 and Highland Pike will have a flag plaza on top of a stone wall in front. As with all buildings in the development, it will have a stone monument sign, and its building colors and materials must match those used throughout the site.

Tenants in Regency Center's building include Buffalo Wild Wings, Complete Pet Mart, Game Stop video game store, Bo Rics hair salon, Nextel Wireless, Friedman's Jewelers and Payless ShoeSource.

Owners of Northern Kentucky's first Texas Roadhouse restaurant plan to open a family-style restaurant by March. The restaurant will be built behind the Golden Corral.

"The Wal-Mart was one of the major reasons we looked at that site,'' said Pat McCafferty, who owns the franchise group with Brian Judd.

No decision has been made on whether to build a new Burger King or expand the existing one in the 3400 block of Ky. 17, manager Adam Dunlop said.

Fifth Third Bank is building a full-service bank at the corner of Highland Pike and Valley Plaza Parkway, the development's access road, Klein said.

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E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com