Ongoing development at two Fairfield-area mixed-use projects—Simon Property Groups’ Fairfield Towne Center and NewQuest Properties’ Fairfield Marketplace—is bringing retail, dining and medical options.

Construction has begun on the first of 10 large tenants at Fairfield Towne Center—a 72,000-square-foot Academy Sports + Outdoors. The store is on target to open this fall, but a specific opening date has not been announced, Academy Communications Manager Eric Herrera said.

A string of restaurants and banks along the Hwy. 290 frontage road will soon be joined by a First Choice Emergency Room and Rooms To Go, both of which are under contract.

A new 123,000-square-foot Kroger Marketplace will open in the Fairfield Marketplace in December, according to Bob Conwell, real estate broker with NewQuest. Following Kroger’s opening, construction will begin on a two-story medical professional building and multitenant retail buildings.

“At the medical building, we’ve already signed on a private practice dentist,” Conwell said. “We want to put a Texas Children’s ER in as well.”

Plans at the Fairfield Marketplace also include bank and restaurant pad sites. Tenants that have signed on so far include Wendy’s, SH Salon and T-Mobile; proposed tenants include Zaxby’s and Urban Bricks Pizza.

Tenant interest has been high, allowing developers to be selective in who they bring in, Conwell said.

“We vet every restaurant,” he said. “We’ve turned down more than we’ve approved. Kroger has very high expectations for the shopping center. We don’t want to do anything that will diminish the appeal of the overall project. We don’t want to bring out the same old, same old.”