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Circuit City closed its doors in 2009. The building will be taken over by appliance and electronics firm hhgregg.
This was the year the State Fair of Virginia moved from Richmond to Meadow Event Center in Caroline County.
Stafford Hospital Center opened last winter near the county courthouse, creating lots of well-paying medical jobs.
Fredericksburg Ice Park, used by local hockey players and skaters, is now a NASCAR-style kart racing facility.
Wegmans opened its Fredericksburg store last June. The first-day crowd was one of the largest ever for the chain.
The University of Mary Washington's real estate foundation is transforming parts of the Park & Shop shopping center. |
BY CATHY JETT
The Fredericksburg area began to show signs that it was shrugging off the recession in 2009.
Wegmans opened with one of the Rochester, N.Y.-based chain's largest first-day crowds ever.
Several long-awaited restaurants and retailers finally opened in The Village at Towne Centre.
And areas as dissimilar as downtown Fredericksburg and rural Caroline County got a boost, respectively, with the coming of the Courtyard by Marriott and the State Fair of Virginia.
That's not to say there weren't some sad farewells. Circuit City, which had outgrown one space in Central Park and moved into a larger one, finally shut its doors after the Richmond-based company folded. So did two of the big-box center's other anchors, Tweeter and Linens-N-Things, and two of its restaurants, Texas Steakhouse & Saloon and Red, Hot & Blue.
Hhgregg, an appliance and electronics firm, recently announced that it will open in the old Circuit City storefront, and Texas Steakhouse now has a sign saying it will become a Hibachi Buffet.
Fredericksburg Ice Park, a favorite with hockey players and figure skaters, also closed in Central Park and was replaced by American Indoor Karting. which offers NASCAR-style kart racing at speeds up to 40 mph.
And Ukrop's, another longtime business, recently announced that its Spotsylvania store was one of two not included in the sale of the Richmond-based chain to Giant-Carlisle. No date has been set yet for the store's closing, but it will likely impact other businesses in that shopping center.
Despite that, the Fredericksburg area--and many businesses here--have been more insulated from the economic downturn than many other places around the country. That's largely due to its proximity to Washington, with its plethora of government jobs, and several military bases.
The area also is starting to get more well-paying jobs closer to home, with the opening this year Stafford Hospital Center on U.S. 1 near the county courthouse and the MediPlex at Lee's Hill, which includes a 24-hour emergency department. Job openings in the medical field will expand even further next year when HCA opens Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center in Massaponax.
Cafaro Co., developer of Spotsylvania Towne Centre, is hoping people will spend more money locally, too. It added the Village at Towne Centre to the mall in 2008 with the aim of bringing the same retailers and restaurants here that residents had been driving to Richmond or Washington to patronize.
The open-air section of Spotsylvania Towne Centre stood empty until the beginning of this year, when The Fredericksburg Pub finally opened its doors. It has since been joined by The Greene Turtle Sports Bar & Grille, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, Saxon Shoes and Charming Charlie.
Next year is expected to bring Bravo! Cucina Italiana, Coldwater Creek, Muvico Splitsville, Swarovski, Arhaus, Joseph & Beth Booksellers and Sephora.
Downtown Fredericksburg finally got a hotel, saw the Civil War Life museum move from the Southpoint I center to a long-vacant space at 829 Caroline St. and got several new shops, including a Stuffy Bear Factory, Scoops Whistle Stop and Colonial Cupcakes, as well as two children's clothing stores, The Mock Turtle and Twinkle Toes and Giggles.
Downtown also becoming a place for specialty foods with the opening of Olde Towne Butcher, PA Dutch Tea & Spice Company and, most recently, Bella Italia Market, Italian Deli, Bakery & Gourmet Food.
Still, several other storefronts remain empty and several restaurants have either cut back hours or, in the case of Caroline Street Cafe, decided to concentrate only on the more profitable catering side of its business.
Other changes to the area's landscape include the tearing down of the old Roses and three other nearby businesses in Park & Shop shopping center to make way for the first phase of its transformation into Eagle Village by the University of Mary Washington Foundation.
Construction of an apartment-style dormitory and a parking garage with office, retail and restaurant space is well under way and should be completed this summer. A bridge linking Eagle Village to UMW's main campus will be installed over the Jan. 15 weekend, and a sign with a high-definition screen will replace the current one in February.
Two more mixed-use projects also are in the works.
The first section of Spotsylvania Courthouse Village, the county's first "live-to-work" community, opened recently with two mixed-use buildings featuring 26 luxury apartments and 16,000 square feet of retail and office space.
Two businesses, The Pear Tree, a gift and accessories shop, and 1st Village Realty have relocated there, and W.J. Vakos Cos., developer of the 225-acre project, is negotiating leases with a variety of restaurants, offices and service businesses.
Over in Stafford, Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust has drawn up plans for the next stage of development at the Town Center at Aquia, and work should begin next summer.
The project will include construction of two mixed-use buildings on the south side of the center's Main Street in June and demolition of Regal Aquia 10 in July so it can be replaced with a larger, high-tech cinema.
The idea, said Edward Wizner, the company's vice president of development/redevelopment, is to create a place similar to downtown Fredericksburg where people can live, work, shop, and go out to eat and be entertained.
Cathy Jett: 540/374-5407
Email: cjett@freelancestar.com
