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SILVER COS. PLANS MASSIVE PROJECT IN VIRGINIA

By Susan Thorne

Central Park, a 2 million-square-foot power center, is already built.

One thing supporters and critics can agree upon about Larry Silver’s vision: It is massive and will transform a swath of central Virginia.

Silver, CEO of The Silver Cos., Fredericksburg, Va., is planning a mixed-use development on a 2,400-acre site in Fredericksburg and Stafford County that will combine retail with a business park, a conference center, tourist attractions, hotels, museums and a golf resort. A 2 million-square-foot retail power center already built by Silver Cos., called Central Park, will anchor the project’s south end.

Called Celebrate Virginia, the venture has already provoked some strong reactions.

“This is going to be of tremendous benefit,” said Bob Carter, assistant director of Stafford County’s Department of Economic Development. “We think the project will provide long-term employment opportunities for the region.”

But others are concerned it will increase traffic and spoil scenic areas.

This complex will straddle the Rappahannock River beside the busy north-south Interstate 95 artery. Visitors will be able to cross the river by cable gondola to take in attractions on both sides, and the offices planned for the corporate northern half will become a source of local and regional employment.

“The site is very strategically located for business purposes,” said Silver. “We will have the only substantial corporate project on the main north-south thoroughfare between Washington, D.C., and Richmond.”

The surrounding area can furnish a substantial labor pool; Stafford and neighboring Spotsylvania County have been experiencing high population growth for several years and serve as bedroom communities for commuters traveling to and from the Washington area. Silver also sees Celebrate Virginia as a future focus for “reverse commuting” from Fairfax and Prince William counties in the Virginia suburbs to offices on the business park. The Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon may have encouraged this trend, he speculated, prompting some firms to consider locating away from the Washington area.

The project’s tourist accommodations and attractions are designed to serve as a family-oriented vacation hub for group tours and family outings.

“Celebrate Virginia will be the gateway for millions of visitors coming to explore our state,” Silver said. “I don’t know of any project like this in the whole country.”

The Silver Cos. assembled the site for Celebrate Virginia through land purchases from 1996 to 2000. While much of the project is in the planning stages, infrastructure work is scheduled to begin this month on the 1,480 acres in the northern segment, and construction of three golf courses is under way. An as-yet unnamed New England-based development consortium has committed to undertake development of a 120,000-square-foot conference center, expected to open in the spring of 2004.

Retailer interest in the project has been lively, Silver said, and negotiations are under way for a food store and other freestanding retail tenants. An area of about 500,000 to 600,000 square feet at the site’s northern tip will be dedicated primarily to retail, and service retailers such as restaurants will also be located throughout the project. Central Park, whose more than 100 retail tenants include Borders Books, Circuit City, Ethan Allen, Kohl’s, Lowe’s Home Improvement and Target, will also create a synergy of shopping with other activities, he said.

As a destination for tourists and history buffs, Celebrate Virginia will complement the historic character of the region. Fredericksburg has a colonial downtown Main Street and numerous historic sites of note, while Stafford County claims the distinction of the place where George Washington chopped down the cherry tree; there are four Civil War battlefields nearby as well.

Proximity to both Williamsburg, Va., and Washington, D.C., further makes the location ideal for a history-oriented excursion. For southbound travelers on I-95, nearby is the first Virginia tourist information facility, which may in the not-too-distant future be upgraded to a State Tourism Welcome Center, pending approval by state authorities. Celebrate Virginia is also under consideration as a site for the National Slavery Museum being organized by former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, a venue that many say would have major tourist appeal. An outdoor amphitheater, a Native American history museum and a Virginia music history museum are among the additional on-site attractions under discussion.

The coming 2007 Virginia quadricentennial will provide an additional visitor draw. Some entertainment features are already in place, such as the Funland amusement park and the indoor ice rink at Central Park. Golf champion Dean Beman is a leasing partner for the planned 650-acre golf facility, which would create one of the largest courses on the East Coast, according to The Silver Cos.

Because it is a sizable and significant addition to the central Virginia landscape, Celebrate Virginia has excited a lot of comment, and much of the public and government reaction is favorable. Stafford County supported the project by creating a new mixed-use zoning category (the recreation-business complex) in 1999, specifically to accommodate Celebrate Virginia’s needs, and officials have enthusiastically helped with permits and other approval procedures. In addition, the county has created the Community Development Authority (CDA) to dispense $31 million for public infrastructure, such as a tunnel under Route 17 and six-lane boulevards; the funds will be repaid through a special tax assessment.

Fredericksburg similarly rezoned its portion of the Celebrate Virginia site in August 1998 to a planned development commercial, or PDC, classification, and has created its own separate CDA for infrastructure, though it has yet to be implemented. A majority of city council members and other politicians are enthusiastic backers.

“This is going to be good for the downtown,” said Gordon W. Shelton Jr., the city’s vice mayor. “This region can finally be a place where people will want to stay several days.”

But opinion about the project is more mixed in Fredericksburg than north of the river. Fredericksburg is a small town of 20,000 inhabitants that was transformed fiscally by the tax revenues from Central Park, whose first tenants opened their doors in 1995. “We went from borrowing money to $7 million in taxes last year from Central Park alone,” said Shelton. Many residents, however, having achieved this comfortable financial status, are reluctant to see concentrated development of the riverside tract; they say Celebrate Virginia will bring traffic congestion (Mayor William Beck opposes the project, while his vice mayor, Shelton, is in favor). There is also concern about the lack of specificity and overall planning, said Jervis Hairston, director of Frederickburg’s planning department. “The developer needed flexibility in zoning because the project is so big,” he said. “It’s a pretty classic battle of development versus slower planned growth.”

The Silver Cos. has tried to address the issue of the impact on the Rappahannock River by granting a 130-acre conservation easement to the city and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation along the southern river bank. Silver also pointed out that there is considerable green space throughout the project: On the corporate campus, 55 percent will be left green, while 30 percent in Central Park and nearly 40 percent on the tourist campus will not be developed. “That’s more than any other project of this kind that I know of,” Silver said.

A project this large will be hard for some to visualize until it is completed, observers say. That, however, won’t be for some time; the developer said it could take as long as 10 years.

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