The opportunity and expansion Butler County experienced in 2017 has been paved by people like longtime rancher Kelly Boyers, small business owner Sondra Foust and Gary Dahl, general manager of a national home improvement store.
Officials broke ground in September on a $10.4 million extension of Shelby Road, which cuts through Boyers' family farmland.
It will complete a highway corridor from Oak Grove Road to Highway 53, which city officials have said was a key component for the retail growth in northern Poplar Bluff.
"Eight Points has been a great addition to Poplar Bluff," said city manager Mark Massingham. "Now that there are more stores open, there is a lot more activity in that area."
Some of the businesses such as Menards, Academy Sports and Five Below are the types of businesses that keep local shoppers here and bring people to Poplar Bluff, he continued.
"When you bring more people in town, it's good for all of the shopping areas," Massingham believes. "The Valley Plaza and Mansion Mall Shopping Centers have brought us similar stores that attract people here and keep people here, stores such as Hobby Lobby, Marshalls and the new Ulta store opening up in Valley Plaza."
The city has seen plans for approximately $30 million in retail and residential construction and renovation since the first of the year, among them some of the more than a dozen new businesses scheduled for the Eight Points retail area.
With Academy Sports, Five Below, Shoe Carnival and Dollar Tree already open in September, construction has moved quickly on a Jimmy John's location and Rhodes 101 at the Oak Grove Road shopping complex.
"I definitely feel it is a great thing for the area of Poplar Bluff," said Dahl, who manages Menards, the first Eight Points business to open. "It's bringing a lot of jobs here. It's making it a lot easier for people to just shop here in town.
"It's nice that this development is taking off like this."
Growth for other businesses improves Menards' bottom line as well, he believes.
"It's definitely bringing people to the area now that there is a whole lot of development here," Dahl said. "You do get a lot more steady business. We used to be heavier on the weekends only."
The city has issued more than 70 new business licenses in the past year.
While some have gone to national chains like those at Eight Points, or Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts on Westwood Boulevard, most have gone to homegrown businesses like ReBlessed Boutique.
The retail store opened after owner Sondra Foust turned a hobby of refinishing furniture into a full-time business and outgrew a previous location.
Foust, like many small business owners, brought a love of what she does to a much improved store-front on North Westwood Boulevard.
Another local business that started small is Bronze Owl Brewery. After years of making limited batches of beer in a personal workshop, the owners have renovated a building on Vine Street with plans to cater to a larger audience.
Success in all its forms helps make the entire community better, people like Boyers believe.
Boyers, his wife, Judy, and their family gave up land that has hosted decades of family gatherings for the construction of the second phase of Shelby Road.
"This road will open up the whole west end of Poplar Bluff," Boyers, 79, said after a ground-breaking ceremony in mid-September.
He has lived since he was 14 on some portions of the land now incorporated in the new road.
Money isn't everything, Boyers said. He did it, Boyers said, because it would help future generations.
Shelby Road is expected to be complete within 18 months.
The city had more than 20 commercial construction or remodeling permits filed in the first eight months of the year.
It included almost $7 million to build a new First Missouri State Bank location on Barron Road, a $2 million renovation of Aldi, and more than $9 million for locations within Eight Points.
A Ross Dress for Less opened in October on Oak Grove Road.
A schedule released in the summer by developers had a Rhodes 101/Imo's Pizza expected to open in December at Eight Points, along with a Scotty's Brewhouse. Permits for Scotty's had not been filed as of late September.
Work was already underway for another business at the location, a Fairfield Inn developers have said should be completed by March 2018. The four-story hotel will cost approximately $4.2 million.
Three Rivers College is also expected to complete construction of the estimated $10.5 million Libla Family Sports Complex in the spring.
A nearly $5 million project on Eugene Boulevard to construct income-based housing for veterans has also started, with permits filed in August.