The retail and commercial portion of a 153-acre data center site in Gainesville is ready to be developed.
Developer Buchanan Partners says the first tenant at Gainesville Crossing will be a Sheetz gas station on the property at Interstate 66 and Route 29. While it can build a convenience store by-right, the developer is seeking a Special Use Permit to install gas pumps and a drive-through lane for customers to order and pick up food.
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The east section of I-66 between Route 29 in Gainesville and Route 29 in Centreville will be reduced to three travel lanes, with the left lane/HOV lane closed for six days. The closure will allow crews to work more efficiently in paving this section of the future Express Lanes and will reduce the traffic impacts of additional paving during the coming months. Three travel lanes will remain open in this section during peak travel periods.
Following the paving of the eastbound Express Lanes, crews will begin final paving for the future Express Lanes on I-66 West in late June. This will also include the general-purpose lanes between Route 29 in Gainesville and the I-495 Interchange, according to VDOT.
All work is weather dependent and may be rescheduled if inclement conditions occur.
The Transform 66 Outside the Beltway Project will add 23 miles of new E-ZPass Express Lanes alongside three regular lanes on I-66, between University Boulevard in Gainesville to I-495. The new lanes should be open in December.
A fire broke out at Grace Jewelers tonight, an independent jewelry store at 14059 Promenade Commons Street in Gainesville.
A fire alarm sounded at about 7:40 p.m., signaling all inside to get out of the shop. No one was injured.
According to initial reports, following the store’s evacuation, someone back inside and smelled smoke in an office area.
Crews doused the blaze in under 30 minutes. A power crew was called to shut off electricity to the accepted areas of the Virginia Gateway shopping center. The center is home to a Regal Cinemas, restaurants, and several boutique shops and sits off Linton Hall Road near U.S. Route 29.
Initially, the fire was reported as an outdoor fire at a nearby Bar Louie restaurant.
More as we have it.
[Updated 2:40 p.m.] Investigators said it was an unfortunate accident that led to the death of more than 500 animals died in a barn fire in Gainesville.
At 3:39 a.m., Sunday, May 8, fire and rescue units were dispatched to the 15000 block of Lee Highway (Route 29), near the Wegmans grocery store at the Stonewall Shops, for a reported house fire by a passerby.
Crews arrived to find a barn fully involved. Fire crews learned there were animals inside but could not be saved due to the volume of fire.
An estimated 500 chickens and ducks, four dogs, and three pigs were lost in the blaze.
No injuries were reported.
On Monday afternoon, investigators told us that due to the severity of the destruction, an actual fire cause cannot be determined. Based on findings and the documentation of working heating appliances in the structure at the time of the incident, the fire is being ruled accidental.
The farm structure was being rented by the tenant and is a privately owned occupancy, not part of a commercial operation.
Lee Highway was closed for 30 minutes early Sunday morning while fire crews worked to douse the blaze.
A 57-year-old man from Front Royal died after his car crashed near Stonewall Memory Gardens cemetery.
On Monday, April 11 at 12:56 p.m., police and fire and rescue crews were called to Route 29 in Gainesville, just passed Pageland Lane, after a driver ran off the road and hit a tree.
According to police, a 2007 Ford Mustang traveled north on Lee Hwy between Pageland Lane and Groveton Road when the driver lost control of the vehicle and left the roadway.
The vehicle traveled along the gravel shoulder before reentering the roadway and crossing into the southbound travel lanes. The car then left the street a second time, stuck a striking a tree, came to rest along the side of the road, and caught fire.
Emergency crews took the driver to an area hospital, where he died the following day. No one else was inside the car when it crashed.
John Andrew Uber, 57, of Front Royal, is identified as the driver.
Investigators are asking anyone who may have witnessed this crash to contact police.
The crash was the second fatal crash in Prince William County on Monday. A Texas man died when his tractor-trailer struck a barrier on Interstate 66 near Manassas and caught fire.
It’s been 20 years in the making, but Catharpin Regional Park in Gainesville is being made into a community destination.
Recently, the county cut the ribbon on a new playground at the park, which includes playground equipment for those ages 2 to 12, four shaded searing areas, and a new picnic table. Some of the highlights of the new playset include built-in musical instruments and a spinning wave seat.
The 7,200 square-foot upgrades cost taxpayers $235,000 and are manufactured by the Alabama-based GameTime division of Playcore, Inc.
The planning and construction phase of the park has spanned the past two decades. The park, located at 12500 Kyle Wilson Way, boasts three softball fields, three Little League ballfields, and five soccer fields.
Now that the new playground is installed, officials will add a new concession stand and new restroom facilities, said Prince William County Parks and Recreation spokesman Amir Wenrich.
A ribbon-cutting for the new playground was held on Saturday, June 26.
Prince William County will consider purchasing at least five pieces of property in the wake of the Thoroughfare cemetery controversy.
The parcels, owned by Flint Rock Builders, of Chester, are located adjacent to the Farm Brewery, near Haymarket. If purchased by the county, they would be used to create a public park.
The push comes after descendants of slaves, who have family members buried in cemeteries in and around the property, found in April that earthmovers had been used to grade an old cemetery, clearing the way for new homes. Flint Rock Builders spent a half-million dollars on the properties with the intention of buildings new homes.
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A new farm winery with a lakefront view sits on Lake Manassas in Gainesville.
The Winery at Sunshine Ridge Farm is a farm winery and craft brewery, locally owned by family friends Maria Rafferty and Tom Schrade.
"As both families' kids were grown and went to college and out of the house, he and I both just kind of found ourselves wanting to figure out some kind of the second career," said Maria Rafferty, co-owner of the Winery at Sunshine Ridge Farms. "We just talked about doing something we would both enjoy, and that ended up being the winery."
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After the Emancipation Act and the end of the Civil War, many freed slaves built communities across Prince William County.
One of those communities, known as “The Settlement,” within the triangle of Old Carolina, Carver Road and Lee Highway in Gainesville, remains, to this day, home to many descendants of those early County residents.
Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, founded in 1877, anchors “The Settlement” and has been the center of the community’s life for more than a century hosting religious services, community events and its annual “homecoming,” which is typically held in August to reunite friends and family.
Mount Pleasant Baptist Church is recorded as a Virginia Historical Landmark and is nominated for listing on the National Register for Historic Places.
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors recently recognized “The Settlement,” with its stories and structures, as a historic African American Community in Western Prince William County.
