Aquia Towne Center to finally be redeveloped

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Purchase of Rite Aid, Regal Cinema buildings at Aquia Towne Center expected to close this month

Part 1

For the better part of a decade Aquia Towne Center has been in limbo. Older businesses sat scattered among rubble and pavement while one modern office building towered above them like a beacon, which in a way actually made the preceding structures appear even more stale. It would be an immense understatement to say that residents of North Stafford and tenants of the town center have been annoyed at the lack of progress by Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust, a Michigan company that owns most of the property. Some citizens of Aquia Harbour, the subdivision that sits directly behind the shopping center, have been downright angry about the matter. 

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors changed the zoning to mixed-use years ago so Ramco could build a totally new town center with offices, retail stores and residential apartments. Many tenants of Aquia Towne Center were told to vacate, and most of the strip mall type of buildings were demolished in preparation for the rebuild. 

Then the recession hit in 2008. It hit particularly hard in Michigan and other parts of the Midwest where Ramco does much of its business. 

A lone five-story office building was erected in 2007. The demolition of the strip buildings (with the exception of Rite Aid’s location) continued through 2008. Then construction appeared to stop. 

Occasionally, a construction vehicle would be seen pushing some dirt along an empty plat of land while rumors of a new movie theater or some other improvement would make its way around the community only for nothing to come of it.

Now, after years of rumors, hopes and let-downs, plans to revitalize Aquia Towne Center, renamed The Town Center at Aquia, may actually go through. 

Two separate companies have been in negotiations to purchase the available property since last year. One company reportedly just closed on a site and plans on building apartments within the boundaries of the shopping center. (More on that in Part 2.) While another company has plans to rebuild the commercial section. 

Mosaic Realty Partners of Maryland is the other buyer. According to its website, Mosaic is a private real estate investment firm by Isaac Pretter and Eron Sodie “for the primary purpose of investing in office, retail and industrial real estate in the Mid-Atlantic.” It was founded in 2012.

Sodie acknowledged that the company is buying the Rite Aid and Regal Cinema buildings. That deal is expected to close this month.

He wouldn’t discuss all of the company’s plans but did say that the office building owned by Ramco requires 400 parking spaces and that limits what Mosaic can do. 

The most anticipated component expressed by residents of Aquia Harbour is the possibility of a grocery store anchoring the center. The town center has been without one since Shoppers Food Warehouse relocated to Stafford Marketplace more than a decade ago. 

What has prevented a grocery store from moving into The Town Center at Aquia all these years has most likely been a non-compete clause that Rite Aid has in its lease. This means that another pharmacy is not allowed in the shopping center. However, most grocery stores have a pharmacy inside them. 

The coming grocery store — though not a done deal — may indeed have a pharmacy in it. However, Mosaic has negotiated with Rite Aid to build a separate free-standing building for them. 

A new, big standalone store gives them a bigger footprint than just a storefront, Stafford County Supervisor Jack Cavalier (I-Griffis-Widewater) told Potomac Local News.

Allowing the center to move forward with this development will likely improve the Aquia Rite Aid’s situation, as well.

Sodie was cryptic about which grocery store he was planning on bringing into the site, but he did say the store would be approximately 75,000 square feet in size although its stores are usually only 55,000 square feet and that it’s known for having lots of prepared foods.

According to site plans, the new grocery store would be built where the movie theater is currently located, at the rear of the shopping center. County officials have indicated that the movie theater could possibly be rebuilt elsewhere in the town center but that it’s more likely there will be a new cinema down Va. 610 (Garrisonville Road).

As for the businesses at the front of the shopping center, consisting of a gas station, motel, bank, tire store, dental office and restaurants, they are independently owned, according to officials. The multistory office building will remain Ramco’s property for the time being.

“I really think this is the best prospect we’ve seen in a long, long time,” said Cavalier.

 

Part 2: Apartments, taxes and a hiccup to bringing in the grocery store