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BY EMILY BATTLE
When Fredericksburg officials thought in the past about the development prospects of a 2-acre piece of land that Quarles Petroleum owns on Dixon Street, one of their best-case scenarios involved a convenience store.
But that site could now be the home of a surgery center and medical office building that could bring 100 jobs and an estimated $284,000 in new tax revenue into the city limits.
The Surgi-Center of Central Virginia, which is now located at the intersection of Chatham Heights Road and Kings Highway in Stafford County, is proposing to move across the Rappahannock River into the city.
GFA Holdings, a limited liability company that owns the building in which the Surgi-Center is now located, is under contract to buy the property at the corner of Dixon Street and Beulah Salisbury Drive--right next to the city's Dixon Park complex.
GFA Holdings has submitted a letter of intent to the city to build a two-story, 40,000-square-foot building on that property to house the Surgi-Center, plus medical offices on the second floor.
Before the $15 million project can move forward, the Surgi-Center will need to get a certificate of public need from the state health commissioner.
Michael Adams, a managing member of GFA holdings, told Economic Development Authority members this week that he thought that process should go smoothly, since the center is simply moving.
Adams said he's hopeful a COPN could be approved as early as June, and GFA Holdings would like to start construction on the new building in October. That would put them on track to open the center in November 2011.
As the company's letter of intent states--and as Adams told the EDA--the group was not able to find a site for its expansion in Stafford County.
City Acting Economic Development Director Karen Hedelt and Economic Development Manager Kim Schill both said that having a business like the Surgi-Center move onto Dixon Street would help start that corridor toward redevelopment, as envisioned in the JumpStart plan the EDA financed in 2006.
That plan calls for Dixon Street, from Beulah Salisbury Drive to Landsdowne Road, to be revived as a place for professional offices and other job-creating uses.
The plan calls for more residential development from Dixon Park back toward the Blue & Gray Parkway.
One of the key elements of the JumpStart plan was its suggestions of specific incentives the city could use to entice the businesses it wanted to move into particular corridors.
Some of those incentives are a part of the proposal to bring the Surgi-Center to Dixon Street.
The EDA agreed Tuesday to offer GFA Holdings a $50,000 grant from EDA money--which comes from bond fees, not tax dollars--to reimburse some of the estimated $181,000 it will have to pay in building permit, water, sewer and other development fees. That money won't be granted until the fees come due.
The city has also worked with the developer to provide fast-track review of its site plans and a longer payment period for its utility fees.
Another component of the deal will have Dixon Park and the Surgi-Center sharing their respective parking lots, since the two facilities aren't typically busy at the same time of day.
Emily Battle: 540/374-5413
Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com
