Specialty grocer no longer in the plans for Lake Murray Boulevard center

Owners of the 62,000-square-foot High Pointe Center at 800 Lake Murray Blvd. and I-26 are no longer seeking a specialty grocer as the company had announced when they acquired the center last November.

Instead, the Boca Raton, Fla.-based PEBB Enterprises is seeking a medical tenant for the space once home to a Piggly Wiggly grocery store, according to a statement released by the company.

"In the case of High Pointe Center, PEBB has identified through a feasibility exercise that the highest and best use for the majority of the property would be a medical use. Given the location and close proximity off Interstate 26, a healthcare facility would allow for the most appropriate mix of medical tenants situated in the 50,000 square foot vacant space," the statement reads.

PEBB acquired the 61,935 square foot center in 2016 with an occupancy rate of approximately 12 percent and is planning to make a significant investment into the site infrastructure and façade to attract new tenants, a company spokesperson says. The center is located near an affluent suburb area along Lake Murray Boulevard and is diagonally adjacent to the three-year-old, 300,000-square-foot Palmetto Health Baptist Parkridge Hospital and Parkridge Medical Associates buildings.

"There’s a continuous emergence of healthcare and medical uses coming into retail centers, and our location is perfectly positioned to support a growing healthcare corridor currently being developed by some of the large regional hospital systems," said PEBB Enterprises director of development, Eric Hochman. "We think medical would make a great fit."

Businesses that have remained open in the shopping center are Tripp's Cleaners, Groucho's Deli and Papa John's Pizza.