Target plans to open one of its “small-format” stores in downtown Athens.

The store will be on the bottom floors of two adjacent buildings on Broad Street near College Square: nine-story University Towers, a parking deck converted years ago into condominiums, and a four-story building planned just to the right of the University Towers on Broad Street. The area is now a small parking lot and alley.

At about 12,400 square feet, the planned downtown Target at 131 East Broad St. is much smaller than traditional Target big box stores — part of the company’s new strategy of opening smaller urban stores.

Target has posted an artist’s rendering of what the downtown Athens Target would look like, but has not yet issued a news release on the project.

“As we get closer to opening the store, we’ll have more specific details to share,” said company spokesperson Liz Hancock in an email.

The company explained its small-store strategy in a news release for a store planned near Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana:

“Target is increasingly opening small-format stores to serve new guests in areas where a traditional sized Target store may not fit — such as dense suburban neighborhoods, urban areas and on college campuses. The retailer is on track to operate 130 small-format stores by the end of 2019. These stores offer a shopping experience and assortment that is tailored to meet the needs of local guests.”

The company already operates small-format stores near many college campuses such as San Francisco State University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the University of Florida, the University of California-Berkeley and Tufts. The Athens store could open late next year.

The upper three floors of the new four-story building next door will be configured for 30 apartments. The apartments won’t be specifically marketed to students like other recent downtown apartment projects, said John Stamm of Athens, who is developing the space for Target in the new building and University Towers with partners Bryan Austin and Trey Wallace.

No parking is attached to the new development, but it’s less than a block from the intersection of College Avenue and Broad Street, which may have Athens’ highest concentration of pedestrian traffic.

At 11,800 square feet, slightly smaller than the planned Athens store, the West Lafayette store would “offer students and residents a quick-trip shopping experience with a curated assortment mix, including a wide assortment in beauty, especially in skin care and personal care; a food and beverage selection with a focus on grab-and-go items, snacks and meal solutions; (and) a curated assortment of dorm and apartment essentials.”

Target also plans to increase its minimum hourly wage to $15 an hour by the end of 2020, according to the 2018 West Lafayette release.

Some have decried the increasing number of chain stores such as Chick-fil-A in downtown Athens, but Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz isn’t one of them.

People forget that downtown Athens was once home to several large retail chains such as Belk, J.C. Penney and Davison’s (later bought by Macy’s), he pointed out.

“I don’t think of it as an existential crisis to have a few chains in downtown Athens,” Girtz said.

Athens sometimes gets a rap as unfriendly to business, but that’s not so, Stamm said. The developers couldn’t have made it work without the cooperation of University Towers condominium owners, he said.

The tower will get a new entrance as part of the project.

The architect for the new building and project is Brett Nave of Athens’ Studio.BNA Architects, who is also the architect of another building planned for the other side of the University Towers building, at the corner of Broad and Lumpkin streets.

That six-story building at 115 E. Broad will be designed for office and retail space, including a rooftop restaurant, according to developers.