FORT MILL
- Baxter Village's rapidly growing
population is luring new businesses, many of them
with local owners capitalizing on the development's
family-oriented atmosphere.
Construction on a day-care center, an
English-style pub and a small inn is expected to
begin by November, said Kerri Robusto, sales and
marketing director with Clear Springs Development
Co., which is developing the property.
In addition, the community will add an
orthodontist and some new office space, Robusto
said.
This latest business boom lends some commercial
presence to the overwhelmingly residential Baxter
Village.
About 560 homes have been built since
construction began five years ago, and another 765
homes are planned.
Now, Clear Springs also is amassing retail and
service-oriented businesses for those residents.
The Fort Mill library already has moved to
Baxter's main entrance near the southeast
intersection of Interstate 77 and S.C. 160. And the
operating shops on Market Street include a
restaurant, a stationery shop, a dry cleaners and an
ice-cream parlor owned by a Baxter Village resident.
"They recognize the growing market and then, of
course, the opportunity to live and work" in the
same area, Robusto said.
Much of this latest round of business development
will be near the new Weston YMCA, scheduled to open
next year.
The Field of Dreams Nurture and Education center
is slated to open next door to the YMCA in the
spring. It will provide full-day programs for up to
250 children between the ages of 6 weeks and 5
years.
Baxter resident Walt Bullard and Tega Cay
resident Rick Field teamed to start the center.
Fields, who left his job in software, said he saw a
"need in the community here in Fort Mill for
high-quality child-care centers."
The center has a waiting list of nearly 100
children, he said.
The center also will offer some services aimed at
helping rushed parents spend more time with
children, he said. That includes selling bread and
milk, dry cleaning services and offering meals to
go.
Six Pence Pub co-owners Ron Anderson and Ken
Martin said the increasing population and Baxter's
proximity to Charlotte convinced them the area would
be a good fit for a three-story restaurant and inn
concept. Their restaurant, which also has locations
in Savannah and Blowing Rock, serves traditional
English fare, like fish and chips.
"We like the area and the Baxter concept, and we
just think we have something to offer," Anderson
said.
The owners say they plan to drop the "pub"
moniker for their Baxter location to encourage
people to view it as a family-oriented restaurant.
But the restaurant will serve food until midnight
and drinks until 2 a.m., they said.
Even more, the duo said they also plan to build a
small, upscale inn in two floors above the
restaurant. The inn's 16 planned rooms are to be a
retreat for relatives visiting Baxter residents.
Martin's daughter has lived in the development since
it began.
Want more information about Field of Dreams child
care center?
Go to their Web site at //www.fieldofdreamscenter.com
