Restaurants, gyms, more: New businesses open in this Warner Robins shopping center

A shopping center in west Warner Robins is bustling with new life.

Anchored by a Publix grocery store, the Gunn Battle Shopping Center is located near the intersection of U.S. 41 and Watson Boulevard, also known as the Ga. 247 Connector.

This month alone, two businesses are expected to open their doors in the shopping center, raising the total to eight tenants added since August.

“We really just focused in on this property to lease a lot of the spaces up,” said Johnathan Ortner, a leasing agent for the Garner Group, an Atlanta-based privately held commercial real estate investment company that owns the shopping center. “Got a few dominoes there and then the rest started to fall and our spaces just started getting leased.”

Gunn Nutrition recently celebrated its grand opening in the shopping center.

Owners Laurie Crump and Suzanne Herring wanted to expand their nutritional drink bar locations in Mississippi into Georgia.

Tenants weigh in

They were looking at opening a store possibly in Savannah or Columbus when an advertisement for a space in the Gunn Battle Shopping Center caught their eye.

“We actually had never heard of Warner Robins until we were just kind of looking, and we found it and loved it and loved the town — just a nice place,” Herring said. “So, we didn’t look anywhere else.”

Beth Singletary of Warner Robins said she wasn’t even considering expanding her dog grooming business and was happy with one location on Watson Boulevard near Robins Air Force Base when she was approached by Ortner.

“He kind of sold it to me,” said Singletary, who opened Posh Paws 2 Pet Grooming in the shopping center in December. “That’s just a great area ... just felt that was another good fit for my salon”

Business has been so good that Singletary initially was concerned she might have to leave her part-time job as a licensed practical nurse to run both grooming salons.

But Singletary said she was approached by two groomers who were looking for a change of employment and hired them.

Emily Amos, owner of The Naturalista in Macon, is opening a second location this month in the shopping center to sell her handmade organic artisan soaps, body moisturizers, bath bombs and other natural products.

“A lot of my customers come from the Warner Robins, Perry, Byron area. So, I figured this spot would be the most convenient where I could always reference the Publix shopping center plaza,” Amos said. “And the fact that it was like not even a mile off of the freeway, it’s easy to find.”

The other tenants added in recent months include:

• Republic Finance - specializes in providing a variety of consumer loans and flexible lending options
• Pink Fleur – offers beauty spa/hair extensions
• Colossal Fitness - a personal training gym
• Cluck-n-Waffles – a family-owned restaurant
• One Night Stand Catering – a take-out eatery and catering business opening later this month

Publix anchors shopping center

Long-established Passion Nails, which has been located in the shopping center for more than a decade, is expanding into a vacant space next door.

“We actually just signed a new lease/renewal there with the nail salon,” Ortner said. “They’re going to expand into that other space and do a larger nail salon. That’s going to be happening in May.”

The shopping center recently lost Cuts by Us.

“They were consolidating locations during COVID and we had the shorter term on the lease,” Ortner said.

The Publix, which opened in the shopping center in December 2010, has thrived.

But other tenants that came on early — Mama Mia’s, an Italian restaurant, the Happy Wox, a Chinese restaurant and SK Restaurant and Kitchen Supply — are gone. Vision Savers remains.

Also, some of the spots that recently filled had been vacant for months.

“It’s a Publix center. You usually don’t see those very vacant,” said Ornter, who joined the Garner Group eight months ago. “I would say that probably before it started to expand that way, a lot of the development is — and I think probably before — it was just a little too far out of the way.

“Publix plants their flag pretty early to get the better rates and everything. They got there really early and it was a little bit further out than the main corridor out there. But now it’s starting to kind of expand out there.”

More businesses coming

Among recent developments is the nearly-completed St. Andrew’s Court, a large apartment complex for those 55 and up. It’s just west of the shopping center across Watson Boulevard and next to The Assembly at Warner Robins church.

Also, J Auto Ranch, a used car dealership at 1250 South Houston Lake Road, plans a second location on property adjacent to the shopping center. A sign announcing that the business is coming is posted on the site.

The Garner Group, which purchased the shopping center on Nov. 30, 2018, currently has three storefront vacancies:

• Suite 440 is 3,801 square feet. The former Mama Mia’s, it’s suitable for second-generation restaurant space with an outdoor patio seating with a fireplace.
• Suite 430 is 1,267 square feet.
• Suite 300 is 1,200 square feet. The former Cuts by Us, it’s suitable for a second-generation hair salon space.

They also have two available out-parcels on site: one is just over an acre and the other is a half-acre.

Several other businesses are located nearby, including a Waffle House, CareConnect Convenient Care, Fresh Pie Pizza, a Sunoco and a CVS.

This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 9:19 AM.