Prince William inks $10.6 million deal to transform retail space into a mental health clinic

It opened as a massive electronics store in 1995.

During the 2020 pandemic, it served as a mass vaccination site. Now, Prince William County will open a crisis receiving center in the space near Potomac Mills mall.

The space at 14041 Worth Avenue in Woodbridge will house a center providing 23-hour monitoring for those in the middle of a mental health crisis. The center will aim to take the stress off police officers, who can spend an entire shift or more sitting with patients, returning those officers to the streets.

The county signed an 11-year lease with Maryland-based Square 95 — 14041 Worth Avenue Holdings, LCC, for nearly 80,000 square feet of space in the 28-story, 156,000 square-foot building.

The county will pay $868,000 annually for the space and will use a one-time $2.5 million federal funding to kickstart the project. By the end of the term, taxpayers will have paid $10.6 million for the building lease.

The Board of County Supervisors is expected to vote on the resolution to open the center at 2 p.m. Tuesday, July 19. If approved, the center will open July 1, 2023.

A portion of the resolution states:

…the CRC will increase local service access and capacity; reduce temporary detaining orders, and provide more timely access to services to assist those experiencing acute behavioral health care needs.

…The available space is 78,925 square feet and is sufficient to accommodate the CRC, and provide additional space for immediate or future expansion for the CS services to address the increasing needs for mental health, behavioral health, and crisis care needs in the county.

The county’s Community Services Board, which provides mental health services for county residents at the Ferlazzo Government Building Ridgewood Center on Prince William Parkway in Woodbridge, and Sudley North Government Center near Manassas, does not have room for the new crisis center.

The Prince William County Board of Supervisors will hold a press conference to announce the center at 10 a.m. Tuesday, July 11, at the McCoart Building, 1 County Complex Court in Woodbridge.

Before it was a vaccination site, the space housed a Gander Mountain store. Before that, the building housed military research and development operations.

Longtime locals remember the building’s first use as Incredible Universe, a massive retail complex complete with a McDonald’s restaurant inside that mixed electronics sales with a live entertainment stage.

Ultimately, the store proved too big and closed in about a year, unable to compete with the smaller nearby Best Buy, which had opened on Prince William Parkway a year earlier.