FARMVILLE – The former Roses building may bloom, along with budding flowers, later this spring and summer.

And Southgate Shopping Center's owner, Jim Covington, is confident about the overall property's future, confirming to The Herald a statement by Town Manager Gerald Spates to Town Council last week that there is multiple interest in the former Roses building.

“We think the property is an excellent piece of property,” Covington said Wednesday afternoon. “We did not renew the Roses lease. That was a decision of the landlord. And we are not in a state of panic. We have interest from several parties and we've just got to sort through it and see what's going to be best and what direction we want to take the shopping center.

“At this moment we don't quite have all that ironed out,” Covington said.

Looking back at the property's past and toward its future, Covington added that Southgate Shopping Center has “been there for 30-plus years and we expect it to be there 30-plus years more.

“It probably won't be in the same form,” he said of the property's future development “but we don't have that form worked out.”

During Town Council's March monthly meeting, Spates had given council members what he described as “an update” on Southgate Shopping Center, telling them “the Roses Store, there's three or four different venues that are looking at that location.”

And there are.