Fort Lee drives a Tri-City boom

BY KATHRYN C. WEIGEL - Special Correspondent
Published: August 14, 2008

Fort Lee’s $1.2 billion in construction is the main force behind strong residential and commercial development activity in the greater Tri-City Area (Petersburg, Hopewell, Colonial Heights and the counties of Prince George, Dinwiddie and Sussex).

The unrelated $500 million Rolls Royce North America Inc. aerospace engine facility in Prince George County is adding to the region’s positive outlook.

Under the U.S. Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission recommendations approved by Congress in late 2005, Fort Lee is in the process of nearly doubling its size as it acquires additional missions from other installations and builds new facilities to house them.

Geographically part of Prince George County, Fort Lee’s current population of approximately 16,300 military and civilian employees is expected to reach 34,600 by 2011, according to the post Public Affairs Office (PAO).

Military and civilian employments are projected to increase by 78 percent and 41 percent, respectively, while the student population (soldiers and civilians in training) jumps 226 percent. 

Economic Impact

By 2011 one in every eight jobs in the region will be directly attributable to Fort Lee, according to the PAO. In 2006, before any construction began, Fort Lee’s annual economic impact on the region was estimated at $850 million.

This year that impact is $1.5 billion as three major construction projects, costing about $800 million, are being completed.

In each of the next three years the post’s economic impact is expected to be $1.3 billion because of smaller construction budgets, according to the PAO, but 2012 and 2013 should see increases to $1.6 billion and $1.76 billion, respectively, when all new facilities are ready for occupancy.

Hotel Industry Growth

In spite of all the construction at Fort Lee, the post will not meet the housing needs of all permanent and temporary military and civilian personnel.

According to the Growth Management Plan developed for the Crater Planning District Commission by RKG Associates Inc., the region now needs 450 rooms per night to accommodate Fort Lee’s student population.

By 2011, the base will need “an astronomical number of room nights a year,” said March Altman, Hopewell assistant city manager. To that end three hotel site plans in the city’s west-end Route 36 corridor are being reviewed, and a newly opened extended-stay hotel has long-range plans for a third building on its site.

Prince George County has one hotel near the post under construction and a second in the planning stage, according to Assistant County Administrator Pamela Thompson. Petersburg recently announced plans for a hotel, and Dinwiddie County may have a hotel on its horizon.

Prince George Housing

A 232-unit apartment complex is proposed just outside the Fort Lee Shop Gate on Jefferson Park Road in Prince George, and a 145-unit age-restricted housing development with 365 multifamily units and a “big box retailer” is planned to straddle the Prince George-Petersburg line, Thompson said.

An upscale subdivision off Prince George’s Middle Road is accepting reservations for its 76 lots that are at least one acre each.

Changes in Petersburg

Petersburg’s Economic Development Manager Vandy Jones said a 250-unit multifamily residential complex opened recently in the southeast quadrant of his city. Also recently completed was a third of a 150-unit single-family subdivision. Two more single-family developments, totaling nearly 300 units, are in pre-construction phases, he added.

The new Southside Regional Medical Center has opened in this area and is attracting office development, predominantly for medical-related functions, said Jones. A hotel was announced in late June and a new credit union facility was poised to open in late July in the southeastern area of Petersburg.

Hopewell and Dinwiddie

Model single-family homes and town houses are available in two subdivisions in Hopewell as an age-qualified development continues expanding and a new single-family subdivision is in the planning stage, said Altman.

The city is requesting qualifications from developers interested in redeveloping a former apartment complex site for a single-family, owner-occupied development.

Dinwiddie County, which has been adding 50 to 60 new single-family homes annually in recent years, has plans for 1,200 new homes under review, said Tammie Collins, division chief of Planning and Community Development.

A 180-acre commerce park near the Dinwiddie Airport is expected to help close “the huge retail gap” in the county, said Collins, as well as add commercial, office and light industrial space.

Hotel, restaurant and multi-use developers have been making inquiries about the county from as far away as California, said Collins. She noted a new county-owned sports complex is under construction to help meet the recreational needs that will accompany residential growth. The complex includes football, baseball and soccer fields as well as tennis and horseshoe courts.

Sussex and Colonial Heights

With Dinwiddie County positioning itself to develop in an orderly and pro-active way, neighboring Sussex County is expecting “more of a spin-off effect” than a direct impact from BRAC expansion, said County Administrator Mary E. Jones.

A realist, Jones said, “The quality of life in the county makes it attractive for residential and commercial/support development. However, the price of gasoline and other commodities will affect whether people will wish to commute 20 or 25 minutes” each way.

Colonial Heights, the third city in the region, has no major development activities related to Fort Lee’s expansion, said George Schanzenbacher, director of planning and community development. Although there are scattered parcels of land, the owners do not seem interested in development at this time, he said.

Commerical Development

Restaurants continue to multiply in the city, with a new Olive Garden and plans for a Denny’s Restaurant and a third eatery being made. Nearby in Prince George an Uno Chicago Grill has opened in the Puddledock area just east of Colonial Heights.

Other restaurants, retail, commercial and recreational development is also occurring in Prince George in the Puddledock area and in the Crossings Shopping Center area at Hopewell’s west end, said Prince George’s Thompson.

Hopewell’s Altman expects his city’s commercial development to continue to be strong east of Interstate 295 and eventually move into the downtown area where the city has options on a number of properties that are ripe for redevelopment. A Walgreens Pharmacy and Bojangles Restaurant are new west end businesses due to open in the next few months.

Although home sales were down about 36 percent in the first quarter of 2008 for the three cities, Dinwiddie and Prince George, area realtors are not alarmed, said Shanna Wiseman, president of the Southside Virginia Association of Realtors. Sale prices appear to be remaining stable, said Wiseman, as the area prepares for its coming tidal wave of new residents.