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A local developer and city leaders will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the Broad Street Retail Center Monday, a long vacant swath of land that will be constructed into 10 units of retail space on Congress and Broad streets in downtown Mobile. (ZITO RUSSELL ARCHITECTS)

MOBILE, Alabama -- A local developer and city leaders will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the Broad Street Retail Center on Monday, a long-vacant property that will be constructed into 10 units of retail space.

Michael Pierce who runs the nonprofit MLK Avenue Redevelopment Corp., which bought the property back in 2009, plans to attract a grocery store to anchor the center.

The 13,000-square-foot project is at Congress and Broad streets in downtown Mobile.

The project will be developed in two phases, Pierce said. They are still scouting a grocery store to anchor the center in what would be a 25,000-square-foot building adjacent to a row of stores.

Pierce said they are considering some national chains, but the outlook is still uncertain.

“There has been some interest from the grocery store community,” Pierce said. “But not enough to get them to sign the lease.”

The entire project, Pierce said, will cost $2.5 million after it is completed. This first phase of stores is slated to be finished six months from the groundbreaking.

The site construction alone is projected to cost about $1.88 million.