The long-awaited Olive Garden is scheduled to open for dinner on Nov. 20, and T.G.I. Friday's also is expected to open its doors this month.

Commercial real estate agent Andy Stetelman said that with few exceptions, nearly every building on the corridor is occupied, necessitating new construction.

"We've filled up about everything existing out there that is available," he said, adding that London & Stetelman Commercial Realtors currently controls between 700,000 and 800,000 square feet of retail space and about 80 undeveloped acres.

Stetelman said the company is in negotiations for new development, including the renovation of the 100,000-square-foot former Kmart Supercenter at Westover Crossing. He said letters of intent have been signed for the store and a new restaurant, which he declined to name.

Not all businesses moving to U.S. 98 are new; some are relocating from downtown Hattiesburg.

Mack Grubbs, owner of Mack Grubbs car dealerships in Columbia and Bogalusa, La., bought the Hyundai franchise on West Pine Street with the intention of constructing a new building on property he's owned for years next to Newpointe shopping center along the highway. His 12,000-square-foot dealership is expected to open in December.

He cited the high traffic flow as one reason for the move.

"It's just that the traffic and the business climate out here is better," he said.

According to Mississippi Department of Transportation numbers from before Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. 98-Westover intersection gets 61,000 cars per day, making it the fourth busiest section of U.S. highway in the state.

Developers, said Stetelman, look for those high-traffic counts.

"98 West has the highest traffic count in the retail corridor of Hattiesburg," Stetelman said. "And most retailers want to be in the new vibrant area of town."

A lack of available land parcels in Hattiesburg's commercial corridor along Pine Street also is fueling the growth, Stetelman said.

"We have just as much demand in Hattiesburg and Forrest County," he said. "But we've about absorbed every bit of property of substantial size in the city of Hattiesburg; there's only so much you can develop. You have to go in some direction where the land is available."

Microtel Inns & Suites is taking advantage of that available land. A 79-room Microtel location is being built next to Olive Garden. Construction workers have the wooden frames up and were installing air conditioning Monday.

And as new businesses move to the high-traffic stretch of highway, existing businesses are expanding, including Newpointe shopping center and Outback Storage.

An extra benefit of all this growth is new jobs. T.G.I. Friday's will, at full capacity, employ between 80 and 90 workers. Hollister Co., one of two new stores expected to open this month at Turtle Creek Mall, will employ 70, employee Ashlee Hendry said.

And more new businesses and expansions could be on the way.

Stetelman said the land is available along U.S. 98, and he doesn't see an end to the growth in the near future - development could end in Columbia.

"I think in the next 15, 20 years I wouldn't doubt that we'll have another regional shopping center," he said. "Why not? That's where the land is available."