Clayton — A proposed shopping center at U.S. 70 Business and Shotwell Road has raised eyebrows at Carolinas Distribution Center, or CDC.

Zimmer Development Co. of Wilmington and Plaza Development Co., Shotwell Road Partners and the Walthom Group, all of Clayton, plan to build the shopping center on 111 acres. Their plans call for retail and office space, a bank, national chain restaurants and a home-improvement store.

CDC, a distribution center with 1.1 million square feet of warehouse space, sits a half-mile north of the proposed shopping center. Crown West Realty of Spokane, Wash., bought the former Winn-Dixie distribution center for $61 million. Its tenants are Smithfield Packaging Co., the meat company; Hallmark Cards, the greeting card company; Kuehne + Nagel, a provider of logistics services; and Hogan Brothers, a distributor for General Electric. In all, those companies employ more than 400 people.

More jobs could be on the way. Crown West wants to add 300,000 square feet of warehouse space for two of its tenants. If those tenants chose not to expand, Crown West would recruit another tenant.

When the shopping center came up at last week’s Clayton Council meeting, Crown West vice president Rob Gragg and Petrus Partners vice president Edward Gargiulo laid out their concerns in a letter to Planning Director Skip Browder. Crown West also had Ramey Kemp & Associates, a Raleigh-based engineering firm, perform a traffic-impact analysis.

“CDC was originally developed as a Class-A warehouse/distribution facility and remains in high demand as evidenced by the high-caliber tenant base it has successfully been able to attract,” the letter stated.

“Therefore, we ask the concerns of the tenants be factored into your analysis of the two proposed retail developments south of CDC, as well as the rezoning application of the land on the east side of Shotwell Road.”

At last week’s council meeting, Wilbur Smith Associates presented a traffic-impact analysis on behalf of Zimmer Development.

But those figures did not include traffic generated by CDC’s employees or truck traffic. According to Ramey Kemp & Associates findings, 1,280 CDC trucks and employee vehicles travel on two driveways in 24 hours.

“We are looking at having all this retail and residential around a major industrial facility with a lot of trucks,” Gargiulo said.

“We are very nervous about the traffic congestion if it is not managed properly. It is absolutely critical for our trucks to access (U.S.) 70, and if that easy access goes away, the benefit of having a warehouse at this location is significantly hindered.”

For the U.S. 70 and Shotwell Road project to work, needed road improvements include an extension of Main Street, dubbed Ring Road, to wrap around the back of the shopping center. Crown West said part of Ring Road encroaches on CDC property, overlaying a good chunk of an employee driveway.

CDC tenants have voiced security concerns with the arrival of a shopping center.

“We cannot allow the proposed retail development to degrade the security of CDC, which will cost jobs,” the letter to Browder stated.

“In this regard, we would ask the Planning Board to require the retail developer to work with CDC to mitigate potential security breeches as a result of the Ring Road and relocation of the employee driveway.”

Despite Crown West’s pleas, the Planning Board backed the shopping center at its June meeting. The Town Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed shopping center next month. As for the developers, Gargiulo said they have been working with Crown West to address the company’s concerns.

Gargiulo just hopes the Town Council is willing to do the same. “We just want to make sure the Town Council doesn’t forget us because they are very interested in further developing retail and getting more people to downtown Clayton,” he said.

“They are looking to do anything they can to get road infrastructure installed that will drive people to downtown. I just hope the Town Council really presses everyone to be involved and work toward a mutually beneficial solution for all of us.”