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Shops at Stonewall to open in November
Shops at Stonewall to open in NovemberBy Dan Roem
Times-Democrat Staff Writer
Assuming there is not some sort of schedule-derailing mishap any time soon, the new Wegmans supermarket in Gainesville may open by the first week of November.
That is according to Don Stedham, vice president of investments for Regency Centers, the development group that owns the 36.9 acres of land at the Shops at Stonewall property on the east side of U.S. 29.
He said that by the end of the year, Regency will have spent about $50 million on the entire project.
The 140,000-square-foot grocery store and restaurant is set to anchor the 28-store shopping center that also includes major outlets like Bed, Bath and Beyond, Staples, Michaels and Ross Dress for Less.
As of this week, construction crews were mostly working on the interior of Wegmans, Stedham confirmed.
“We had been working closely with Wegmans throughout our pre-development cycle, so we knew that Wegmans wanted to be here,” he said.
Regency and Wegmans previously joined forces in Harrisburg, Pa., to open a shopping center there.
After that worked out “very well,” Stedham said, the companies stayed in touch and decided to build out the swath of wooded land at the intersection of Old Carolina Road and Lee Highway just over the Fauquier line in western Prince William County.
One of the biggest challenges for commercial and residential developers alike in the western part of the county is how to handle transportation concerns.
During rush hour, traffic along Lee Highway can grind to a halt and even during non-peak hours, the road can be heavily congested.
“We need to make sure that the center operates efficiently in the eye of the consumer,” Stedham said. “Nothing could be worse for us than to build a center and have traffic conditions prevent customers from wanting to come.”
Essentially, Regency wanted to prevent the old “Yogism” from Yankees catcher Yogi Berra from coming true: “Nobody goes there anymore; it’s too crowded.”
Regency has agreed to build a turn lane along the northbound lane of Lee Highway, which will run along the more than 1,500 linear feet of property next to the road.
During the years it took for the site plan to materialize and develop, economic concerns about how the Shops at Stonewall would open began to worry Stedham.
“The timing to get to the market...if anything was keeping me up at night, it was that,” he said.
What makes Wegmans viable in an area that has grocers like Harris Teeter and Shoppers Food Warehouse is the uniqueness of the store, according to Stedham.
For example, there will be an upper-level outdoor café overlooking one of the holes on the nearby golf course.
“The market is what the market is, and we’re very fortunate to be embedded in a highly affluent, highly educated trade area,” said Stedham.
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