Academy Sports + Outdoors is open at 8400 Wilkinsville Road. Target, permitted next door, is listed for October 2027. The road that would give this corner its own entrance off Highway 51 is still being designed. Millington Farms is growing in at the pace of permits, financing and engineering, one piece at a time. For at least the next year, the people who shop there will be using a road layout that was never built for a full shopping center.
What's open, what's permitted, and what's still a projection
The construction near the Walmart on Highway 51 is all one project, Millington Farms. City documents list TM Farms Holdings, LLC as owner and developer of Phase II, a commercial subdivision. Developer Tom Marsh described the full plan to the Memphis Business Journal in 2025. He called it a 100-acre mixed-use project with apartments, hotels, medical offices, assisted living and 300,000 square feet of retail, backed by $15 million in infrastructure investment.
Heading into November 2026, here is where each piece stands:
| Piece | Address or location | Current status |
|---|---|---|
| Academy Sports + Outdoors | 8400 Wilkinsville Road | Open since October 2026 |
| Target | 8450 Wilkinsville Road | Permit filed Feb. 4, 2026; leasing listing projects October 2027 |
| Wilkinsville Connector to Highway 51 | Wilkinsville Road to Highway 51 | Design underway; no construction funding scheduled yet |
| Hotels, medical offices, other retail | Elsewhere in Millington Farms | Planned; no named tenants |
Academy is the one piece you can visit today. The store page lists hours of 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday. It also offers one-hour in-store and curbside pickup. Customer reviews on that page date opening day to Oct. 10. The Daily Memphian reported the store at 55,000 square feet. WhatNow Memphis cited a construction permit that puts the building at 53,969 square feet.
Why Target's date sits a year behind Academy's
The two stores were announced together, and that's why people expect them to open together. The Commercial Appeal wrote about both as a pair in August 2025. Their paperwork has moved on separate tracks since then.
The Commercial Appeal reported that Target's construction permit for 8450 Wilkinsville Road was filed on Feb. 4, 2026. General contractor S.M. Wilson announced the job a week later. Its plan is a 127,700-square-foot store with a Starbucks, a CVS Pharmacy and a full grocery section. That makes it more than twice the size of Academy, and the grocery and pharmacy add a lot of interior build-out.
Target hasn't said when it will open. Its regional store page lists a future Millington store at 8450 Wilkinsville Road with no date. In September, WREG reported on Target's October openings. Tupelo, Cookeville and five other locations were scheduled for Oct. 11, and the report said only that a Millington store was "on the way after that." The Hill put Millington on the list of stores due "eventually." The commercial leasing listing for Millington Farms is the only source with a date. It says Target is "opening October '27."
That date comes from the developer's side, not from Target, and the leasing flyer says the tenants shown on its plan aren't guaranteed to lease or occupy the center. Still, it's the only target date anyone has published. If you've been planning around a Target run this winter, the safer guess is next fall.
For now, there's one way in: the Walmart signal at Glencoe Way
A one-year gap between the two stores would matter less if Millington Farms had its own front door. It doesn't yet. The leasing listing says the development shares a traffic signal with Walmart at Highway 51 and Glencoe Way.
So Academy shoppers and Walmart shoppers use the same light. Once Target opens with its own pharmacy, grocery section and Starbucks, its customers will be at that light too, unless the second access point is built first. The same listing shows "future Hwy 51 access from Wilkinsville Road."
The road that's still on paper
That second entrance is the Wilkinsville Connector. It turns up in city records as early as April 20, 2026. That's when a Millington staff report on Academy's sign referred to the "proposed Wilkinsville Connector Road" and put a tenant sign where the connector would meet Highway 51. The sign location was planned before the road existed.
Here's where the connector stands in public planning documents:
- The Memphis MPO's project status tracker lists it as "Design underway."
- The FY 2026–29 Transportation Improvement Program budgets $137,670 for preliminary engineering and $25,391 for right-of-way, both in fiscal year 2027. It budgets no construction money for the connector in that four-year window.
- Millington's FY26 budget lists $122,619 for the Wilkinsville Road Connector as a pending capital project.
Each of those amounts is for design, land or early planning. No published schedule shows when construction starts or ends. Target has a projected date. The connector doesn't, and until construction money shows up in a funding program, there's no basis for guessing one.
Why the access question shapes everything else on the site
The two big stores are only the start. S.M. Wilson's announcement calls Millington Farms a $1 billion, 103-acre development. The leasing flyer's map is labeled "207 Acre Future Development," and the 2025 interview said 100 acres. Those numbers may describe different phases or boundaries, and none of the sources explains the difference.
The listing also mentions a 360-unit apartment project. That's The ONE at Millington. In December 2024, Multi-Housing News reported that it had secured $46.8 million in construction financing. The same report described plans for three hotels and six medical office buildings within Millington Farms. No hotel brand, medical provider or stand-alone restaurant has been named for the site.
Each of those future uses means more cars on the same roads. Apartments add daily trips. Hotels and medical offices add visitors who don't know the area. A grocery-anchored Target adds the quick weeknight stop. Whether all of that funnels through Glencoe Way or splits between two entrances depends on the connector. Right now, the connector is behind both stores.
How the next year at this corner is likely to go
Putting the published dates in order gives a rough calendar:
- Now through 2027: Academy is open. Wilkinsville Road and the Glencoe Way signal carry its traffic along with Walmart's.
- Fiscal year 2027: The connector's engineering and right-of-way money is scheduled to be spent. That money covers design and land, not paving.
- October 2027: Target's projected opening, according to the development's leasing listing. Target itself hasn't given a date.
- No date yet: Construction on the Wilkinsville Connector, plus any named hotel, medical or restaurant tenant.
Until then, plan Academy trips knowing you'll share the Glencoe Way light with Walmart traffic. And expect the Target site to stay a construction zone for most of the coming year.
If you're watching Millington Farms take shape and wondering how it fits with your own plans, whether that's selling near Highway 51 or just living with the traffic, I'm glad to talk it over. Teresa Ervin Realty follows this corner one permit at a time. Let's Get A Coffee and go over what's actually on the calendar.
