At the Village Shops at Kingsmill, everything is quiet.
Rows of multi-colored storefronts with glossy windows and open blinds reveal dozens of empty business spaces inside the shopping center’s seven buildings, only a handful of tenants remaining.
Empty trash cans block doors to now-closed restaurants, while benches sit empty along the plaza’s walkway. In some windows and doors, signs notify patrons businesses have relocated.
Coming up, the shopping center will get a face lift and new life.
The Village Shops at Kingsmill, near Busch Gardens at 1915 Pocahontas Trail in York County, was approved for redevelopment Nov. 13, York Planning Director Tim Cross said.
The new plans include demolishing one existing building and partially demolishing another of the center’s seven buildings — reducing the center’s total square footage from 92,945 square feet to 61,248 square feet.
The remaining buildings will be renovated, and a new parking lot with a pedestrian plaza will be constructed on the same parcel, according to the December 2018 Development Activity Report from York County.
The changes will add 37.8 percent more open space, Cross said.
Improvements to parking will be made, and a new drive-thru lane and landscaping features will be constructed.
The project is a “by-right” development already allowed by the existing general business zoning, Cross said, meaning the redevelopment only need approval through an administrative review, not the Planning Commission of Board of Supervisors.
Cross said the application did not include information on whether existing tenants will stay in the center or move.
Contact information was not immediately available for the developer, and the project engineer from Timmons Group did not return multiple requests for information.
Without information from the developer, Market Realty Group LLC of Glen Allen, the project’s timeline remains unclear.
Over the years, some stores in the shopping center have closed one-by-one, including Silt, Discover Teas and the Wine & Cheese Shop at Kingsmill.
