Pending a vote from Williamsburg City Council Thursday, the Williamsburg Shopping Center will be redeveloped into a retail and residential hub called Midtown Row.
With a decision on the horizon, the property owner has announced several of the shopping center’s tenants will remain while there are prospects for at least one major national chain at the proposed development.
“Today it’s a dead shopping center,” said Broad Street Realty CEO Michael Jacoby. “Here’s an opportunity to do something we can weave into the fabric of the community. We’re saving the retailers the community wants us to save.”
The “saved” tenants include Sal’s by Victor, Ace Hardware, Food Lion, Marshall’s and the Virginia ABC.
City Council is scheduled to vote to approve or deny two proposals from Broad Street Realty at their meeting Thursday. If approved, Midtown Row will feature four five-story buildings, each housing four floors of residential apartments above ground-floor businesses, in addition to currently existing retail buildings on both sides of Monticello Avenue.
While speaking at the city’s Planning Commission meeting in September, Jacoby said the Williamsburg and Monticello Shopping Centers — which Broad Street currently has under contract — have a combined 320,000 square feet of retail space.
Between 150,000 and 200,000 of that space is currently vacant, he said. He added Broad Street has received letters of intent from potential tenants to fill 200,000 square feet in the Monticello Shopping Center alone.
Once completed, Midtown Row will remove roughly 100,000 square feet of retail space from the property. However, Jacoby said he was confident the mix of tenants in the revamped centers will offer something for everyone.
Food Lion will remain in its current location for the duration of its lease, and Jacoby said the grocer will be refurbishing the store. Sal’s by Victor will remain in place as well, and the ABC store will move into the same building.
Marshall’s and Ace Hardware will likely be moved across Monticello Avenue to what is now the Monticello Shopping Center, Jacoby said.
Jacoby said Broad Street has leased the entirety of the currently-existing space in the Williamsburg Shopping Center, and has some tenants penciled in for the remaining retail space at Midtown Row.
While the company is not ready to announce any new tenants, Jacoby hinted before the Planning Commission one of the prospects “is interestingly enough from a national organic food grocer who may or may not be owned by a company called Amazon. It may or may not be in an active negotiation for that site.”
The only national organic food grocer owned by Amazon is Whole Foods.
“Overwhelmingly I felt like our mixed-use urban environment people will widely enjoy what we’re going to accomplish there,” Jacoby said. “The amount of retail success we’ve had validates that.”
WYDaily archives were used in this article.
