Dollar General Stores, Inc. will open a new Russell Springs location in March 1, 2011, according to Denver Wilson, a Russell Springs businessman who headed up the project.

Wilson, who made the announcement Tuesday at city hall alongside Mayor Hollis DeHart and broker Lu Shaw of Country Folks Realty, said the endeavor began nearly two years ago and fell through twice before the company accepted Wilson's latest proposal, an acre of land at the corner of Hwy. 1729 and Hwy. 80 across from the Royville Friendship Church.

"They became very interested in the west side of Russell Springs," Wilson said of the company. Wilson and the former land owners, Dale and Cindy Smith, signed the listing contract earlier in the summer.

Susan Cox Construction, who now owns the property and does long-term leasing to Dollar General, will be building the building in the coming months.

"It is very exciting for me to deal with a company that had over $10 billion worth of revenue in 2009," he said. "Dollar General is not a small company by no means."

Wilson gave much credit to DeHart and Shaw for the work they did on the project over the past few months.

"I can't say I done all this, I have to give them a lot of credit," he said. "They're both very community-minded and they're both for progress."

He said while Dollar General will likely hire around 10 employees it was a progressive start to adding new businesses in Russell Springs.

"It will have some groceries," Wilson said of the new store. "It will be a lot more of a modern store than the one we have here and, as far as I know, both stores will remain open."

He said the west side of Russell Springs was a new frontier in business and he would continue to look to add new businesses to that part of town over the next few years.

DeHart said he wished to thank Don and Lu Shaw at Country Folks as well as Wilson for their tireless efforts of bringing in the new Dollar General location.

"The city wants to be business friendly," DeHart said. "I speak for the council when I say thanks from the bottom of my heart to all those who have worked so hard during this process."

Shaw said it was an honor to work with the mayor and Wilson on the project.

"I can't say enough about Denver," she said. "He's worked extremely hard on this … and I'm very, very proud of him."