Huge shopping center planned

BY GREGORY J. GILLIGAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER / Apr 21, 2006

Eastern Henrico County lacks a large shopping center -- but that should change in about two years.

Plans call for putting a gigantic retail development on 136 acres off South Laburnum Avenue just south of Interstate 64.

The proposed White Oak Village would have a total of 913,600 square feet of space for dozens of stores, restaurants and a hotel. No retailers have signed onto the project yet, but possibilities include Target, Lowe's, Kohl's and Ukrop's as anchor tenants.

"The east side of Richmond is primed for this kind of retail," said Jim Richardson, project manager for Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc., which is developing White Oak Village.

Forest City, which developed Short Pump Town Center in western Henrico, has a contract to buy the site of the former Viasystems Technologies Corp. plant, which closed in 2001.

The company filed a rezoning request late yesterday afternoon. Henrico's Planning Com-mission and Board of Supervisors likely would take up the matter this summer.

The developer hopes to tear down the 700,000-square-foot plant this fall and start construction on the shopping center early next year.

The $100 million-plus project would open in spring 2008.

While the region has seen explosive retail growth in recent years, the eastern part of the area has been badly underserved, Richardson said.

The proposed shopping center would meet the needs of the existing residents in eastern Henrico as well as new residential developments, he said. "The residential market will be growing over the next three to four years," he said. "We want to be a part of that growth."

Retail development has taken root elsewhere in Henrico -- near Short Pump and Virginia Center Commons malls. In Chesterfield, retailers have opened stores along Midlothian Turnpike near Chesterfield Towne Center and state Route 288 and Hull Street Road. In South Richmond, Stony Point Fashion Park opened and chains have located stores at Forest Hill Avenue and Chippenham Parkway. Also, the Mechanicsville area of Hanover County has attracted national retail chains.C. Lee Warfield III, senior vice president at commercial real estate company Thalhimer/Cushman & Wakefield in Richmond, said the timing is right for putting a large concentration of retail in that part of the metro area.

"Eastern Henrico always has been left behind and now it might finally be its time," Warfield said.

The White Oak Village shopping center would have three components:

  • About 720,000 square feet of space for three large anchor tenants, a grocery store and a dozen or so other retailers that would be in a U-shape flanking the back of the property.
  • About 150,000 square feet for smaller national, regional or local retailers that will be in a village-life setting in the center of the shopping center.
  • About 72,900 square feet along Laburnum Avenue for restaurants and banks. A hotel would be located closest to I-64.

The project's total square footage would be slightly smaller than Virginia Center Commons but bigger than Regency Square mall.

Forest City's Richardson said the company is talking to national retailers that operate large stores as anchor tenants and dozens of chains for the smaller and midsize store spaces. "But it won't be high-end fashion like Short Pump," Richardson said. The developer also wants the center to have a grocery store.

Ukrop's Super Markets already has a location across the street in the Laburnum Park shopping center at 4346 S. Laburnum Ave. That store opened in the fall of 1987.

But the chain may consider relocating, said Robert S. Ukrop, the grocer's president and chief executive officer.

"We don't have a deal . . . but it is always a consideration," Ukrop said.