An effort to complete the Marquis at Williamsburg by adding more than 200,000 square feet of commercial space and 650 residential units cleared a major hurdle Tuesday after the York County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve permits allowing the development.
The proposals were split in two, with the one for commercial development moving quickly past the board while the residential component was the subject of a long line of questioning from the supervisors about issues including amenities and the overall cost to the county to provide services to the residences.
With their vote, the supervisors approved a proposal asking for a 136,500 square foot building for a national club discount retailer. That retailer will operate a gas station built into the parking lot outside its building. They also signed off on three restaurants, a 55,000 square foot anchor store and thousands of square feet of other commercial space.
The residential component brings 161 standalone homes, 189 townhouses and 300 apartments to the Marquis property. Those residential units will be complemented by more than 40 acres of open space, a 1-acre multipurpose activity field, two tennis courts, two outdoor activity areas, a swimming pool exclusive to the residents of the apartments and more than 1 mile of multi-purpose trails that will weave throughout the property.
The county receives a 7-acre tract of land as part of the deal. The developer, Texas-based Todd Interests, has identified that land as a potential site for an elementary school to be built. The county is not bound to build a school there, however. Todd Interests estimates the land is worth $2 million to a developer looking to build residential units, and the county has the power to sell it if so desired.
Tuesday’s vote is the latest chapter in the often troubled path the Marquis has taken since it was first approved in 2005. It was originally envisioned as a massive community resembling New Town in James City County, with a main street component. There were talks for a library for Upper York County to be built in the development. At one point, the supervisors signed off on a proposed 71,000 square foot hotel, though that never came to fruition.
What did emerge from the original plans are five retailers currently in place: Target, Best Buy, Kohl’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods and JCPenney. Before anything else could be built, the original developer of the property declared bankruptcy, setting off a chain of lawsuits and other maladies that left the development in stagnation until Todd Interests came along in 2011 and purchased the property.
Shawn Todd, the owner of Todd Interests, told WYDaily in September the project had $38 million in debt hung around its neck. Since acquiring the property, Todd said that debt has been paid in full. Furthermore, the five existing retailers have signed long-term commitments to remain at the development.
One person spoke during the public comment period for either proposal Tuesday night. That person spoke on behalf of Days Hotel, which is located across Route 199 from Marquis. She urged the supervisors to consider how much traffic the new development would create and how that could adversely affect the hotel. She said the traffic light that sits at the intersection of Route 199 and Marquis Parkway used to sit in front of her hotel. Since it moved, guests can no longer turn left out of the hotel to get to Water Country USA down the street, requiring them to drive more than a mile to reach the park. She also said an elementary school on the 7-acre site could lead to the stacking of buses. She also worried about the elimination of the left turn lane on Route 199 into her hotel, which would further isolate it from the main thoroughfare.
National Club Retailer Unites Marquis Project
At the heart of the proposal is a national club discount retailer eyeing a proposed 136,500 square foot building that would be lodged between the existing commercial space and the swampy buffer that splits that part of the development from the residential part. That retailer’s identity has yet to be revealed. Greg Davis, the Kaufman & Canoles attorney who represented the developer of the Marquis, said that company has opened only a handful of locations nationwide in the past few years.
“A national tenant like this, a retailer of this power and reputation, attracts what we call follow on retail,” Davis said. He said that since a letter of intent from that retailer had been executed, the developer, Todd Interests, has fielded requests from restaurants and a national hobby chain.
Shawn Todd, the owner of Todd Interests, was present at Tuesday’s meeting. Following the supervisors’ vote, he declined to identify the retailer to WYDaily, citing confidentiality agreements. Davis told the supervisors the retailer is “on the fast track to submit plans” for their building in January.
In addition to the value of that club retailer to other retailers looking to set up shop in the development, Davis said the residential component of the development would sink if the club retailer was not on board.
“It’s about $4 million to build infrastructure to the housing,” he said of the cost to extend the Marquis Parkway out to the residential development. “No residential developer would agree to pay for that. The bondholders of Marquis have agreed to take out bonds to buy the infrastructure. The bondholders have said that if the national club retailer does not locate to Marquis, we will not fund the $4 million infrastructure.”
A signed letter from the bondholders was submitted to the county confirming the bonds would not be taken out should the club retailer not be a part of the project.
Todd said the residential component of the development does not work for him unless the national retailer is on board. He said if he could, he would go for 800 to 900 houses in the residential area but that the 650 units represent “a happy medium” between county staff’s concerns about developing the land and his need to have a project that is economically viable.
Davis said that without the residential rooftops in the area, the commerical portion of the project would not work. He said Kroger was looking to build a 130,000 square foot grocery store in the development but balked when researching the area due to a lack of residential rooftops.
“There’s a symbiosis here, and the two together are a more powerful application than either would be alone,” he said. “The fiscal impacts of the north pod can’t be ignored when you evaluate the south pod.”
Supervisors Discuss Elementary School Issues
During the debate before the vote, the supervisors spent a while on the issue of how the development would affect the York County School Division.
The Marquis is in the attendance zone for Queens Lake Middle School and Bruton High School. Both of those can easily handle the number of students expected to be generated by the development. The problem rests with Magruder Elementary School, which York County Zoning Administrator Mark Carter told the supervisors is “basically at capacity now.”
Carter said the county believes there’s “a fairly significant impact” at the elementary level by the development. He showed the supervisors a series of slides with projections of student numbers from the county — showing 250 school-aged children — and from the developer, which showed 145. The largest discrepancy was with Magruder, which the county projected as receiving 113 students from the development while the developer shows 62.
Even if the supervisors were to have rejected this proposal on the grounds it would have adversely affected the York County School Division, county staff believe it likely would not have made a difference in the bigger picture.
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” York County Administrator James McReynolds said at Tuesday’s meeting on the subject of building a new elementary school. He said this development and others pending in the county could accelerate the need for an elementary school by about a year, with design coming in 2015 and construction starting in 2016.
“Regardless of whether we approve this or not, the need for another elementary school is on the horizon,” Supervisor Sheila Noll (District 2) said.
During the discussion of how the residential component of the development would affect services, Davis pointed to the projected economic impact of the commercial development to the county. He said sales are expected to climb to almost $200 million, a far cry from the current sum of a little more than $50 million in annual sales. Their projections show $30 million in revenue for the county over the next decade.
The other elementary school in Upper York County is also nearly at capacity, leaving the county in a position where it must contend with the effect of development it has already approved and development that does not require permission from the supervisors. Carter said current information shows 421 lots in lower York County that could be developed without permission from the supervisors and an additional 470 lots in upper York County that could be developed by right.
“That’s not going to all occur overnight,” Carter said. “There’s only so much that can be absorbed into the market.”
Those lots join already approved developments like Commonwealth Green, Nelson’s Grant, and a community of up to 102 townhomes being built off Bypass Road. Estimates from the county show hundreds more students from approved developments confronting the school division.
The target demographics for the residential component of the Marquis are, according to the developer, not people who have young children who require schools. They’re primarily retirees, empty nesters and dual-income/single-income households without children.
The supervisors were concerned the apartments could be filled with three- and four-unit apartments, which are more favorable to families with small children. Davis said the there was little need for apartments with that many bedrooms.
“Our fiscal analysis assumed away all but a very small number of three- and four-bedroom units,” he said.
Supervisors Accept Amenities, Spacing in Residential Component
When the residential proposal went before the York County Planning Commission last week — they voted to recommend the supervisors deny the project — major sticking points included the amount of amenities and the space between the individual homes in that portion of the residential component.
Todd told the planners last week he has built more than 20,000 residential units in Texas between 1991 and 2007, during which time he has learned to team up with the best builders in the marketplace to create a project that caters to the demands of consumers.
The normal space between houses is at least 20 feet in York County. When the application was before the planners, the application called for spaces of 15 feet between the houses. After the planners blasted that idea, the proposal was modified for Tuesday’s meeting to ask for 20 feet of spacing between many of the units, with up to 10 percent allowed to have 15 foot spacing. Carter said the spacing would not hinder the efforts of the York County Division of Fire and Life Safety in the event of an emergency. The apartment buildings, which are allowed to be up to 75-feet tall, are able to be sufficiently covered by existing equipment within the division, he said.
The Marquis Parkway will be extended to the residential component, serving as the only thoroughfare connecting it to the outside world. A pedestrian footpath will connect the development to the adjacent commercial development. The two are separated by a swampy ravine that will not be developed. The road is not a state-owned road, however the residents of the Marquis will be spared the maintenance costs of the bridge over the swamp as that will fall under the purview of the commercial development.
Todd told the supervisors he has teamed up with Richmond-based HHHunt Homes, which has done extensive work to study the needs of the targeted demographics.
“They want smaller lots, with more amenities built into the house and less HOA,” he said. “That’s what’s come up with this amenity package.”
Supervisor Thomas Sheppard (District 5) was critical of the plan to allow only the residents of the apartments to use the swimming pool. Todd said research shows the people who would be buying the houses and townhouses are not the type to want an outdoor pool and its associated fees. He said the people who want a pool are more likely to be members of a fitness club featuring an indoor pool available for year-round use.
There was also discussion of what the pool would look like, which wasn’t clear Tuesday night. Todd said the pool would feature a “large surface area” but that he didn’t “know the size of that pool.”
The issue of noise was also brought up as the residential component abuts the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, with the closest lot falling around 100 feet from the base’s property. The Explosives Ordnance Disposal Range is nearby, which could lead to noise in the development. The commanding officer of the installation submitted a letter to the county saying he was concerned with the noise from that range and a future firing range that may be built in the area. He said the development would not interfere with naval training, rather that his issue was with the potential for residents to complain of noise.
Todd said nearby Water Country USA and the King’s Creek Plantation timeshare community have not been complaining about noise. When asked about noise from nearby Interstate 64, Todd said the interstate is several feet below the development, which is also buffered from the roadway by trees.
The application was also amended to include two tennis courts, something it did not have when it was before the planners.
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