At Camden and Rockfish, the Highway Came First and the Target Followed

Why would a Chattanooga developer put the Fayetteville area's second Target on a two-lane road at the edge of Hope Mills? The answer is the interstate exit up Camden Road from the graded dirt at Camden and Rockfish roads. The Camden Road exit on I-295 has been open since July 2024. The rest of the Outer Loop was finished last November. Camden Commons is what showed up once that exit gave the corner highway access. The next piece is the road itself. Camden Road is still two lanes past the construction fence, and NCDOT already has a plan to rebuild it.

For anyone who lives near Jack Britt High School and drives Camden, Rockfish or Strickland Bridge every day, that order matters. The highway is done, the store is going up, and the road between them is the part still to come.

The exit opened before anyone broke ground

The timeline matters here, so here it is in one place.

The last leg of the Outer Loop was late for reasons that had nothing to do with retail. NCDOT says the contract for the Raeford Road to Camden Road section was delayed three years by funding problems and settlements tied to the Map Act court ruling. That five-mile section has exits at Camden Road and Strickland Bridge Road, which are the two interchanges that serve the Jack Britt area.

The developer has said plainly why the site works. Fox Johnston of Fletcher Bright Company told BizFayetteville that "the site's appeal is driven by its location, access, visibility, surrounding residential growth and connectivity to the broader Hope Mills and Fayetteville trade area, including direct access to I-295 and convenient linkage to I-95."

What Fletcher Bright is building behind the fence

Fletcher Bright is a 100-year-old company based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Johnston has built Target-anchored centers before, mostly in the Carolinas. At the July groundbreaking he said he developed his first one in Hickory in 1999, according to BizFayetteville's coverage of the ceremony. The company has also cited comparable projects in Mooresville, Monroe and Summerville, South Carolina.

The site plan, as Johnston described it in April, has room for more than one big store:

• One anchor of more than 120,000 square feet, which is the Target
• Two more anchor spaces, each over 50,000 square feet
• Several shop buildings
• Several outparcels along the edges

BizFayetteville called the store a Super Target. The Fayetteville Observer reported that Target is one of two anchors at what will be the largest commercial development in Hope Mills to date. No other tenant has been named. In April, Johnston said the company was talking with national and regional retailers, restaurants and other users, aiming for "a thoughtful mix of national, regional and complementary local users."

Reports put the size at about 80 acres. At the groundbreaking, Mayor Jessie Bellflowers called it "an 82-acre investment in the future of our community." The construction team includes Busch Construction, Highland Paving, and McKim & Creed Engineers, Surveyors, and Planners.

The schedule has two parts. Target's ribbon-cutting is expected in 2027. For the rest of the site, the developer's stated goal is to have the first phase "substantially leased and under construction by the end of 2027," with later phases depending on demand. That means the Target could open while much of the land around it is still being built.

Why Hope Mills wants a big box on its western edge

The town's interest goes beyond shopping. Town Manager Chancer McLaughlin told BizFayetteville the project would "significantly increase the tax base." He also spoke of "a significant influx of revenue from commercial sales tax." He tied that revenue to services: commercial growth, he said, "will allow us to have some revenues coming in where we can actually expand our services without hitting the general fund and raising people's taxes."

He also talked about the town's smaller businesses. "We're cognizant of preserving the small town character of Hope Mills, and those are your small mom and pop restaurants," McLaughlin said, adding that the town hopes "to enhance them even more."

Camden Commons fits a larger plan. The new Hope Mills land-use plan calls for an employment hub along I-295, as the Fayetteville Observer reported in September. That plan sets a direction. It does not approve any project. Smaller changes are also happening along the same road. On Sept. 21, 2026, Cumberland County commissioners approved rezoning 0.51 acres at 5715 Camden Road from R10 Residential to C(P) Planned Commercial. It is a small parcel, but it shows the same thing as the Target: commercial uses moving onto a corridor that now connects to an interstate.

The road in front of the store is still two lanes

This is where the order of events matters most for people who live nearby. The interchange is finished and the store is under construction. Camden Road, between them and the center of Hope Mills, has not been rebuilt yet.

NCDOT's U-3422 project page calls Camden Road "currently a two-lane roadway." The agency proposes rebuilding about 3.7 miles of it, from the I-295 ramps east to just west of N.C. 59, which is Hope Mills Road and N. Main Street. The project map includes the Camden and Rockfish intersection. The plan includes:

1. Widening to four lanes, two in each direction
2. Adding a raised median
3. Building Reduced Conflict Intersections
4. Installing U-turn bulbs

The project has two sections. Section A runs from the I-295 offramp east to just west of Teeters Road. Section B runs from there to N.C. 59. The estimated cost is $94.175 million, including $82.6 million for construction and about $10 million for right-of-way. NCDOT notes these estimates may change.

The Reduced Conflict Intersections will change daily driving the most. NCDOT says the most common version removes left turns from side roads onto the main road. Drivers on the side road turn right, then make a U-turn at a dedicated spot, usually less than 1,000 feet away, to head the other way or cross. If you now turn left onto Camden Road from a subdivision street, that turn would become a right turn followed by a U-turn. NCDOT says this design lets drivers watch traffic from only one direction at a time.

The schedule is the open question. When NCDOT last updated the page in June 2026, it listed a construction award for Section A in December 2025 and for Section B in October 2026. Both dates are marked "subject to change," and the page lists no construction start or finish dates. Right-of-way acquisition began in July 2021, so the widening is a planned project with land work behind it, but its construction calendar is not set yet. NCDOT takes comments on the project page at every phase.

What the next year looks like from Jack Britt

The Strickland Bridge corner shows how a road change can rearrange short trips. When the realigned Strickland Bridge Road opened on May 31, 2025, it added a signal at Strickland Bridge, Stoney Point and Barefoot roads. The new route to Century Circle added turns for people heading to nearby schools and the county library. Camden Road's planned medians and U-turns would cause a similar change over a longer stretch.

The Outer Loop project is also not quite done. NCDOT's June 2026 update said the contractor would need until summer 2026 for minor work, including permanent lane markings and the final layer of pavement on some nearby secondary roads. Some of that may still be underway on side roads near the interchanges.

Here is the short version for the months ahead. The Outer Loop turns one year old on Nov. 25. Target's building should keep rising at Camden and Rockfish through 2027, with a ribbon-cutting expected that year. The other anchors and shops still need tenants. The four-lane rebuild of Camden Road is waiting on NCDOT construction contracts. If you live off Camden Road, you will feel the store opening first, and the road project could change your daily route for longer.

If you want to know how changes like Camden Commons and the Camden Road plan could affect your street, or what they mean if you're thinking about selling in the next year or two, I'm glad to talk it through. I've watched south Fayetteville grow around new roads for four decades. Jay Dowdy is here when you're ready. Let's Connect.