New retail shops are coming to north Macon, which means some of those same shops could be leaving the west Macon area.
A development group announced Tuesday that Marshall’s, Michael’s and Old Navy are among the new stores coming to the area off Bass Road.
All three stores already have locations at Eisenhower Crossing off Presidential Parkway.
If you drive through the Eisenhower Crossing shopping center, you’ll count at least a dozen empty buildings and hundreds of empty parking spots.
“It’s kind of rough. I still have a Target gift card," says shopper Annie Curtis.
The Target store in the shopping center shut down in February.
"I’m sure that people that stay over here, homeowners and things of that nature, are probably very upset," says shopper Wayne Woodard.
Some shoppers say the empty space invites crime to the area.
On Monday the Aldi grocery store on Presidential Parkway was robbed at gunpoint, and a teenager was shot and killed at the Bloomfield Road Chick-Fil-A just around the corner.
"There has been a lot of crimes over here on this side of town, so yes, it does make me very concerned about that," says shopper Janquelle Simmons.
Other shoppers say the crime doesn't bother them, but seeing stores shut down does.
“I’m a small business owner myself, and I know with all these big-box retailer stores not being over here, its less traffic this way... so they are going to have to uproot and think about relocating, which isn’t as easy for them as it would be for a Best Buy, a Target and such," says Woodard.
13WMAZ contacted all the stores that already have locations off Presidential Parkway to see if they would be closing and moving to North Macon.
None of them could confirm anything at this time.