BELLE — Kevin Guffey of American Realty and Development is working on a combination project for a Dollar Tree and Family Dollar store being constructed at 807 Highway 28 West in Belle.

“We will probably open in October of this year,” Guffey said Monday when asked about the project. “We will probably begin building a couple of months from now.”

Guffey has been working to clear the land, as two dilapidated houses recently sat on the property. The developer will also be the local landlord for the combination store.

“It is a new concept,” Guffey began. “Dollar Tree bought out Family Dollar seven or eight years ago. They decided to go into some of the smaller market stores.”

He explained that about one-third of the store will most likely be a Dollar Tree, about 5,000 feet will be general merchandise, and another 1,500 feet or so will have freezers and coolers set up as a food and beverage market. Another 1,000 feet will be a snack space.

“It will be broke out to be a very unique store,” Guffey said. “It’s a brand new prototype and we are building about 15 of them a year now as they are expanding all over the United States.”

The project has been on hold recently as winter went out with a storm and the spring weather has brought rain, however, Guffey said he expects the franchise to send out a statement about six weeks after construction begins.

“We do new construction for them,” Guffey said. “So ours takes a lot longer to build. This started around the same time as the pandemic, but we finally got them all tweaked and started to build.”

Guffey’s office did warn that 807 Highway 28 would most likely not be the store’s permanent address, but one won’t be issued until the building is in place. Guffey does not expect construction to begin until the weather breaks and becomes dryer.