EURE – While a construction timetable is unknown, the Gates County ABC Board has permission from the state to move forward with building a new store near here.

At their scheduled meeting on April 16 in Raleigh, the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission approved a request by the Gates County ABC Board for a store location at 29 US 158 South, Eure. The new store will replace a former ABC store location vacated due to a highway widening project.

“We’re excited about getting started on the new store,” said Gates County ABC Board Chairman G.P. Kittrell Jr. “We’ve been without a store on that side of the county since August of 2012, so this is a long time coming.”

Kittrell said the Gates County ABC Board was scheduled to meet with the project’s general contractor, Calvin Davenport, Inc. of Rocky Mount, last week to sign the construction contract. No completion date on the project is known at this time.

“I’ll make sure to contact you and let you know that information so you can let the public know when to expect the new store to open,” Kittrell said.

Kittrell said the store will be built for under $300,000 and that Davenport was the lowest of three companies to bid on the project.

He added that Bill Dove Architects will design the new store.

“That’s the same architect we used to build the new store in Corapeake a few years ago and we were very pleased with that design,” Kittrell said. “The Corapeake store is very efficient to operate, and easy to maintain, but the most desirable element of that store is its appearance. It’s not an eyesore.”

The new store will be similar to the one in Corapeake, Kittrell said. It will encompass 1,970 square feet, slightly smaller than the one in Corapeake.

“The retail space (1,396 square feet) of the Eure and Corapeake stores are the same; we didn’t need extra storage space in Eure so we cut back on those specs (574 square feet),” Kittrell noted.

Kittrell added that the Eure store will be self-service, allowing customers to browse and shop among the variety of products on shelves.

The state’s involvement in this project has been ongoing since Feb. 19. Documentation provided to this newspaper by the North Carolina ABC Commission lists that date where the Gates County ABC Board requested approval from the state to build and operate an ABC Store at the aforementioned address.

NC ABC Commission investigators Edwin Strickland and Melissa Miller met with Kittrell and Gates County ABC General Manager Mark Goodman on March 10 and surveyed the one-acre lot where the new store is proposed to be constructed.