THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 22, 1994 TAG: 9410220322
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
A new $35 million shopping center is being planned in Chesapeake that will create another power center along the busy Greenbrier corridor and introduce several national retailers into the region.
The proposed center, called Greenbrier Market, marks the entrance of Target, a discount mass-market retailer that competes with Wal-Mart and Kmart, to the Hampton Roads market. Bookseller Barnes & Noble and the Gap's Old Navy Clothing Co. also are slated as tenants in the shopping center.
Cousins/New Market Development Co. Inc. of Marietta, Ga., has proposed the 640,000-square-foot retail center, which will be on Greenbrier Parkway between Volvo Parkway and Eden Way.
City economic development officials estimate that the center will generate approximately $3 million in retail sales revenue and $630,000 in property taxes. The number of jobs that will be made available is uncertain, said Chesapeake economic development director Donald Z. Goldberg.
Construction will start on the 73-acre site in the first quarter of next year and Greenbrier Market will open in the spring of 1996, said Ron Pfohl, a senior leasing representative for Cousins/New Market.
The Chesapeake City Council and Planning Commission are scheduled to meet jointly on Oct. 25 to vote on rezoning the property from industrial space to commercial space. The Planning Commission has already approved the site plans for the proposed Greenbrier Market, but the City Council has yet to vote on it.
Many city officials welcomed the addition of the retail center.
``It'll have new stores that we don't have in this area,'' Goldberg said. ``We've become a destination for the market with our retail centers now. We're always looking for diversification.''
Target, a subsidiary of Minneapolis-based Dayton Hudson Corp., will occupy a proposed 116,200-square-foot store, making it one of the major tenants in the new shopping center. The discount chain began expanding in the mid-Atlantic region this year.
Another new store to the region will be the Gap's discount division, Old Navy Clothing Co. Old Navy is meant to appeal to Gap shoppers who like the San Francisco clothier's merchandise, but not its prices. About 45 stores have opened nationwide under the Old Navy name.
As part of the requirements for rezoning, Cousins/New Market has been working with the city on landscaping and other civic improvements like traffic lanes and traffic signals. It will contribute $150,000 to add a new lane on Greenbrier Parkway, which will be widened. At least two new traffic lights are proposed near the shopping center.
Volvo Cars of North America Inc. owns the 190-acre parcel, worth $13 million according to city assessment records, on which the proposed Greenbrier Market would be located. Cousins/New Market has an agreement to acquire 73 acres of the lot upon which the shopping center would be built.
Cousins Properties, the parent company of Cousins/New Market, is a well-known regional developer near Atlanta that has worked on projects from Maine to Florida and as far west as Texas. It has a diverse portfolio of projects and an impressive client list, including the Coca-Cola Co.
The 10-year-old New Market development division itself, which was acquired two years ago by Cousins, has developed about 10 million square feet of retail space.
Cousins/New Market also has looked at other sites for development in the state, particularly Richmond. by CNB