Gainesville Wegmans scheduled to open in early November
By Dan Roem
Assuming there is not some sort of schedule-derailing mishap any time soon, the new Wegmans supermarket in Gainesville may open by the first week of November.
That is according to Don Stedham, vice president of investments for Regency Centers, the development group that owns the 36.9 acres of land at the Shops at Stonewall property on the east side of U.S. 29.
He said that by the end of the year, Regency will have spent about $50 million on the entire project.
The 140,000 square-foot grocery store and restaurant is set to be the anchor for the 28-store shopping center that also includes major outlets like Bed, Bath and Beyond, Staples, Michaels and Ross Dress for Less.
As of this week, construction crews were mostly working on the interior of Wegmans, Stedham confirmed.
“We had been working closely with Wegmans throughout our pre-development cycle, so we knew that Wegmans wanted to be here,” he said.
Regency and Wegmans previously joined forces in Harrisburg, Penn. to open a shopping center there.
After that worked out “very well,” Stedham said, the companies stayed in touch and decided to build out the swath of wooded land at the intersection of Old Carolina Road and Lee Highway in western Prince William County.
One of the biggest challenges for commercial and residential developers alike in the western part of the county is how to handle transportation concerns.
During rush hour, traffic along Lee Highway can grind to a halt and even during non-peak hours, the road can be heavily congested.
“We need to make sure that the center operates efficiently in the eye of the consumer,” stated Stedham. “Nothing could be worse for us than to build a center and have traffic conditions prevent customers from wanting to come.”
Essentially, Regency wanted to prevent the old “Yogism” from Yankees catcher Yogi Berra from coming true: “Nobody goes there anymore; it’s too crowded.”
So Regency has agreed to build a turn lane along the northbound lane of Lee Highway, which will run along the more than 1,500 linear feet of property next to the road.
So company officials worked closely with the county government officials like Supervisor Wally Covington (R-Brentsville) and Brentsville District Planning Commissioner Ron Burgess, asking questions about how to operate within the area.
“‘I want you meet with each one of the communities in or around your property. We’re going to sit down with a blank piece of paper for a program that’s going to be beneficial for the long term.’” Stedham said Covington told him.
Area residents living near Turtle Point Drive, which is adjacent to the property, had to be consulted on a monthly basis to discuss issues like landscaping and which tenants might be occupying what buildings.
“And again, those people that live directly behind and share Turtle Point Drive behind us are extremely affluent,” remarked Stedham.
But during the years it took for the site plan to materialize and develop, economical concerns began to worry Stedham about how the Shops at Stonewall would open.
“The timing to get to the market, you know, was,” he said, before pausing to think. “If anything was keeping me up at night, it was that.”
What makes Wegmans viable in an area that has grocers like Harris Teeter and Shoppers Food Warehouse is the uniqueness of the store, according to Stedham. For example, there will be an upper-level outdoor café overlooking one of the holes on the nearby golf course.
“The market is what the market is and we’re very fortunate to be embedded in a highly affluent, highly educated trade area,” said Stedham.