On its first day of operation in more than a year, the Kroger gas station at Elkview's Crossings Mall had steady business, manager Dan Workman said.
The fuel center opened at 6 a.m. Friday. Residents still have a few more weeks to wait for the grocery store, though. Workman said it's pushing to reopen at the end of August.
"I've had a few hugs this morning," Workman said. "People are thrilled that we're opening back up, even if it's just the fuel center."
Like Kroger, several of the other Crossings Mall businesses are preparing to reopen, now that the mall's bridge and only public accessway has been reopened. Besides the Kroger fuel center, the Little General convenience store also reopened Friday morning, store manager Dewayne Rhodes said.
Workers at a few of the other business also were on site Friday, preparing to reopen.
At the Kroger grocery store, renovations still are underway. When it reopens, the grocery store will have new floors, shelves, checkout lanes, paint, bathrooms and a new produce department, Workman said.
Not long after the deadly June 2016 flood that washed out the mall's culvert bridge, Kroger's perishable items were sent to neighboring stores, Workman said.
"All of that stuff was saved," he said. "We didn't lose hardly anything."
In January, the rest of the inventory was removed so that the store could prepare to reopen.
"We wanted to make sure that, if we were able to open and open soon, we wouldn't have to worry about throwing away a bunch of products and customers thinking we have stale products up there, which we don't," Workman said. "Everything that we're bringing in when we open will be brand new, fresh products."
The mall entrance's reconstruction was held up after owner, Tara Retail Group, headed by developer Bill Abruzzino, filed for bankruptcy in January.
The bridge's absence led to dozens of businesses in the shopping center closing. More than 500 people who worked at the mall have been out of work, according to the Kanawha County Commission.
As of June, 23 of the 26 Crossings Mall stores that were open before last year's flood planned to reopen, according to representatives of the businesses and rent documents from Tara Retail Group.
Like the others, Kroger workers and contractors have been accessing the mall through a road that was built to evacuate people from the shopping center after the flood. Workman said he and others refer to it as the "goat trail."
"My [car's] suspension will love this bridge," Workman said. "We're thrilled we were able to get in Monday, to start bringing more things. Now we'll be able to get tractor-trailer deliveries. It makes everything easier, and the remodel should be quicker now."
In the seating area of the Subway restaurant at Crossings Mall on Friday, Diane Conley and a few employees waited for a food truck. The store plans to reopen Wednesday, with a staff that's mostly different from the one that was in place before the flood.
"[The owner] has five stores and this one is her busiest store," Conley said. "It's been hard."
Only one employee is returning.
"Everybody else is new," she said. "We hired a new staff and we're gonna start training Monday and open Wednesday."
A crew of workers at La Quinta Inn & Suites continued Friday to renovate and restock the hotel before it reopens in the first or second week of August.
"We're going over everything with a fine-toothed comb, making sure things are safe and comfortable for the customers," manager Mark Frontino said.
Before the new bridge opened, they also used the access road.
"Let's just put it this way: It was challenging to get here," Frontino said of the road.
Hotel owners hadn't left the facility completely abandoned in the year the mall was closed, though. A crew stayed on at the hotel to make sure it stayed clean and secure, Frontino said.
Now that the bridge has reopened, "it makes it a lot more convenient and easy for people to get in here," he said. "And it makes it easy for deliveries. We've got our mail coming straight to the building now. It's just better all around - a better bridge."
Reach Lori Kersey at lori.kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @LorikerseyWV on Twitter.