A Nashville developer is forging ahead on a $30 million shopping center in O’Fallon, Illinois, after pausing the project due to the pandemic.

Called The Shoppes at Richland Creek, GBT Realty Corp. is developing 17 acres of vacant land at Interstate 64 and Greenmount Road, a major thoroughfare that divides O’Fallon and Shiloh. The project includes 53,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

The center is about 70% pre-leased with tenants such as Smoothie King, Chicken Salad Chick, Pacific Dental, Five Guys Burgers + Fries, Taco Bell, Burger King, Popeyes and Tidal Wave Luxury Car Wash. Poettker Construction Co. of Breese, Illinois, is the general contractor.

Construction was to start a few months earlier, but GBT Realty paused the project to determine how the Covid-19 crisis would play out.

“We were literally about to ground break as the pandemic started. The only reason to pause was to get a better feel of what permanent effects on retail would be,” said Jeff Pape, managing director of GBT Realty’s shopping center division.

“It’s no secret retail has been changing over the last several years,” Pape said. “We felt comfortable with the short pause we took. We have no doubts moving forward.”

The confidence is reinforced by the classic real estate mantra of “location, location, location.” The intersection of Greenmount Road and I-64 has seen close to $1 billion of development in a few years’ time and is near major employment anchors such as BJC and Scott Air Force Base.

The Shoppes at Richland Creek is expected to open in summer 2021.