BURLINGTON -

The newest addition to Westview Plaza is almost complete, adding eight new stores to the 23 existing businesses in the surrounding area.

The new expansion, called Westview Plaza II, is located on Sixth and Center streets, behind Westview Plaza in Burlington.

The two buildings will house the eight new businesses and they will have about four spaces available to rent when the expansion opens.

The project is expected to create dozens of new jobs.

The buildings were constructed by Mullins Construction of Wheelersburg and financed by Guaranty Bank of Huntington, W.Va.

Hart said they also plan to build additional buildings on the land behind Westview Plaza.

To date, it has been a $2 million project, but Hart said they plan to do more and grow more.

The eight new stores will be completed in the next three to four weeks. The new tenants will include J&J Guns, Curves, a restaurant and Chico's, a mail order company, and a cell phone store.

J&J Guns, a sporting goods store, is the first tenant that plans to open its doors in the next two weeks.

"Since fuel has gone up so high, we want to provide one-stop shopping," said Westview Properties owner and Chesapeake councilman Paul Hart.

With the increase in gas prices, people are making fewer trips to do their shopping and Hart explained that they wanted to have an area that would meet that need.

These new stores are mostly owned by local business people. Hart said that this will keep the tax dollars in the Tri-State.

With the large volume of traffic that goes through the area daily and the fact that the property is centrally located between Ashland, Ky., Ironton and Huntington, Hart said it is a "good investment for tenants."