After winning a rezoning request from officials in Holly Springs (Pop. 3,500) in February, Centerpoint Development of Atlanta is talking with two separate companies to build the county's first 423,000-sf, estimated $35-million open-air shopping center at the southwest corner of heavily trafficked Interstate 575 and Sixes Road, people in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com. The site is 20 miles north of Downtown Atlanta.

Centerpoint officials couldn't be reached by GlobeSt.com's publication deadline to learn when the project will break ground. However, area retail brokers familiar with past planned enterprises for the county tell GlobeSt.com the project will probably break ground in first quarter 2006.

The development site is between Woodstock and Canton, two of the fastest-growing cities in the US, according to the US Census Bureau. Cherokee County itself has grown to an estimated population of 175,000 from 110,000 in 1995.