NEW TENANT POSSIBLE — The former Cracker Barrel building at The Highlands has been closed since October 2015, but soon could get a new tenant, according to Randy Wharton, president of the Ohio County Development Authority. -- Joselyn King

NEW TENANT POSSIBLE — The former Cracker Barrel building at The Highlands has been closed since October 2015, but soon could get a new tenant, according to Randy Wharton, president of the Ohio County Development Authority. — Joselyn King

TRIADELPHIA — The year 2017 should see a new tenant move into the former Cracker Barrel space at The Highlands.

As county officials look toward the new year, Ohio County Commissioner Randy Wharton — also president of the Ohio County Development Authority — said there are spots available for more businesses to move into the county-owned development.

The past year saw a new hotel and conference center come to The Highlands, as well as a number of restaurants, retail offerings and some light industry.

The Cracker Barrel building, though, has been empty since the business closed in October 2015.

“We will have a tenant for the Cracker Barrel space after the first of the year,” Wharton said. “We have secured a really good tenant, and I believe we will be announcing something after the first of the year.”

While he would not name the prospective tenant, Wharton said the business coming to the former Cracker Barrel spot would not be a restaurant.

There’s also a 1-acre plot of land between WesBanco and Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen along Cabela Drive, and Wharton said it should be filled in 2017. There are a variety of proposals in the works for the property, he said.

Among light industry tenants at The Highlands, the East Coast Metals building is nearing completion, and two more industrial businesses are “in the hopper for back there,” Wharton said.

The first tenant at The Highlands — Cabela’s — opened in late summer of 2004. By 2006, the development had become host to a number of restaurants and retail offerings, and the 10-year leases signed by these businesses are now about to come to term.

Wharton said the Ohio County Development Authority is working to renew many of the expiring lease agreements.

As for more businesses on the horizon, dirt is continuing to move on land at the far end of The Highlands, where it’s been announced a future Menards store will be built. Activity there is continuing amid ongoing legal action.

Steve Minard and his company, Crystal Mountain West Virginia LLC, has filed a $25 million lawsuit in Ohio County Circuit Court against the Ohio County Development Authority, county commissioners and others over his failed Wild Escape theme park project that had been proposed for the same property.

Ohio County commissioners have filed a counterclaim on behalf of the development authority, alleging breach of contract on the part of the theme park developers.

In court documents, they also have accused Minard and Crystal Mountain of actively interfering in its business dealings with Menards, a Wisconsin-based home improvement retailer that purchased land in late 2015 to build a 200,000-square-foot store at The Highlands.

Wharton said he had no further comment on the legal action.