Target, Burlington join major retail lineup at new Mebane development
Target, Burlington and four more national chains have signed on for Mebane’s third & wood, a 82.9-acre project tied to 140,000 daily trips on the I-40 corridor.
National retailers are crowding into east Mebane as Koury Corporation adds Target, Burlington, Five Below, DSW, Michaels and PetSmart to third & wood, a mixed-use project rising near Trollingwood-Hawfields Road and Interstate 40. The leases mark a major expansion for the 82.9-acre site, which Koury says will eventually top 305,000 square feet and pair stores with restaurant, office, medical and residential space.
Target will be the largest draw so far. Koury’s project materials list the chain as the anchor tenant and put the store at nearly 127,000 square feet, while The Alamance News reported that Target bought 10.7 acres for $1.975 million in January 2025 for a second Alamance County location. The same project page places third & wood at the corner of Trollingwood Hawfields Road and Rowland Lane and says traffic counts in the area reach 140,000 vehicles a day, a number that helps explain why the corridor has become one of the county’s hottest development fronts.
The retail lineup builds on a zoning fight that began in late 2024, when Koury sought approval for an 83-acre project that originally included 645 apartment units, 38 townhomes and a shopping center. Mebane’s city council later approved conditional rezoning, and the project has since evolved into a broader mixed-use plan that Koury says includes 304.8 thousand square feet of retail and restaurant space, 112.5 thousand square feet of medical space, 683 multifamily units and four outparcels. Koury also describes Mebane as the fastest-growing city in the Triad, citing a 10.87% population increase from 2020 to 2023. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated Mebane’s population at 20,654 in 2024, up from 17,797 in the 2020 census.
The retail push does not stand alone. Across the corridor, Buc-ee’s is under construction near Exit 152 on Interstate 85/40, with plans for a 75,440-square-foot store, 120 fuel pumps, 24 EV charging stations and 652 parking spaces. Buc-ee’s has said the project represents a $91 million investment and 831 jobs, with a tentative opening in May 2027. Together, the two projects are turning the eastern edge of Mebane into a regional shopping and travel hub, promising more convenience for shoppers and more pressure on roads, utilities and local planning as growth continues to stack up along the interstate.
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