|
REGIONAL
|
|
When
John and Jane Hampton decided to return to the
United States after 15 years abroad, they had no
idea where they wanted to live and certainly no
predilection toward Prince William County. "To
me, Virginia was a place where they grew
tobacco," says 51-year-old John Hampton. Yet
four years ago he brought his family and started
a business. The Hamptons chose Prince William
because they thought it had the most to offer in
terms of open space, proximity to urban life,
good schools for their children and economic
opportunities for their new business. "We
virtually knew instantly this area had a great
appeal," says Hampton, a former managing
director of Fisher Price Toys in England. He now
runs Express Personnel Services, a staffing
company in Manassas. |
| Belmont Bay, Preston Caruthers' planned $300 million waterfornt community, is the type of upscale development the county wants. |
|
| But old impressions
die hard. The county's boosters have to get past
the perception of Prince William, home to Potomac
Mills outlet mall, as a place for discount
shopping and cheap housing. County leaders hope a new, more mature and more upscale image is beginning to emerge. They lured a new economic development director from the state office and raised their economic development budget to $1.32 million. They invested millions in a high-tech business park so far inhabited by attractive but tax-exempt institutions such as George Mason University and the American Type Culture Collection. The gamble was that if you build it right, the rest will come. Many businesses are taking the bait. "This interest we're seeing is phenomenal," says Martin Briley, director of the Prince William economic development office. New businesses brought 857 jobs here in 1998, and 18 more companies announced plans to move here. Briley's office is now working with 72 active clients. "A lot of things the county put in motion a decade ago are bearing fruit," says John Schofield, who works in the economic development office as marketing research director. * * * Signs that the county is shaking its gangly adolescence are already evident. But the most controversial measure by far came in August when the Board of County Supervisors passed a residential slow-growth plan more far-reaching than similar efforts made by neighbors in the Washington metropolitan region. The initiative came from the new county executive, Henry Bernhard Ewert II, hired to upgrade the county's image. The move reduces the county's land-use plan by 27,000 residential units. It also requires developers to pay higher impact fees than any neighboring jurisdiction to help cover the costs of building and maintaining schools, parks, libraries and other government services. Supervisors also set aside 80,000 acres they call the rural crescent, from the Quantico Marine Corps base to the Loudoun County border, for farms and low-density development. When he first arrived, Ewert couldn't understand why the county of 270,000, with one of the highest family incomes and the highest real estate tax rates in the state, had no budgetary flexibility. "I'm trying to figure out why, and the why is very simple -- schoolchildren cost money," he says. More than 42 percent of Prince William residents are families with children. The national average is 27 percent, and the average in Northern Virginia is 29 percent. As a result, the county has a $300 million unfunded backlog of school construction. The new plan is designed to free up money to build new schools, roads, sewers and other infrastructure. The county's leaders also need to diversify the housing stock. In neighboring Fairfax County, 70 percent of housing is in the $200,000 range and higher. That figure drops to 9 percent in Prince William County. Developers don't like change, but they have some time to adjust. It likely will be a decade before the plan bears fruit, because roughly 45,000 residential units were approved before the plan took effect. "It would take 18 years to use up existing inventory," assuming development continues at its current pace, says county planning director Rick Lawson. |
|
| Retail | 28 percent |
| Services | 23 percent |
| Government | 19 percent |
| Construction | 11 percent |
| Manufacturing | 7 percent |
| Transportation, public utilities, communications | 4 percent |
| Wholesale | 3 percent |
| Finance, insurance, real estate | 3 percent |
| Other | 2 percent |
Largest Private Employers4
| Alliant Atlantic Foodservice Annaburg Manor Nursing Home Atlas Plumbing & Mechanical Atlantic Research Didlake Dominion Semiconductor Lockheed Martin Northern Virginia Healthcare Center Phoenix Development Potomac Hospital Corp. Prince William Hospital Sports Authority S.W. Rogers Temporary Solutions Wal-Mart Westminster Presbyterian |
Average Services Wage3
$461 per week
Median Household Income5
$54,837
| 1 -
December 1998 2 - October 1998 3 - 2Q 1998, nonagricultural employment 4 - 1Q 1998, 250 or more employees 5 - 1993 data |
While a majority of residents applaud the new comprehensive plan, some remain skeptical. "Prince William County has not been very good at following plans in the past," says Martha Hendley, who is seeking the Republican nomination for Gainesville District Supervisor. "They make so many exceptions that the exception has been the rule."
* * *
When a visitor came to try out the new golf course at Belmont Bay, he asked to check out the greens before he handed over his money.
Preston Caruthers wasn't surprised. The 72-year-old developer knew people didn't expect to find anything special east of U.S. Route 1 on the shores of the Potomac River in eastern Prince William County. The area had been neglected for decades. But here, in a tidal cove where the Potomac and Occoquan rivers meet, Caruthers is developing 325 acres of waterfront property.
His $300 million waterfront community with offices, condominiums, estates and golf course is the type of pioneering upscale, urban development the county wants. Belmont Bay is designed to evoke the pedestrian-friendly atmosphere of a Nantucket, Mass., town square and the easy Italian charm of a Portofino Harbor.
| "We're blessed
with having a developer who has enough money and
a vision to do it right," says Schofield in
the county's economic development office. Caruthers has a photograph of Portofino in his conference room. The Belmont Bay project is a dream he has carried with him for decades as he has traveled around Europe and the United States. He hopes to have most of it built by the fall. The cove remained undeveloped until recently
because it was landlocked by a railroad.
Caruthers donated land to the county and the
state in 1992 for an $11 million Virginia Railway
Express commuter station and a four-lane highway
with a bridge from Route 1. |
 |
| In addition to the 18-hole golf course, a 158-slip marina and upscale housing, Caruthers plans to build a town center that has narrow streets, buildings with storefronts on the street level and offices and apartments above. The project also harbors sites for two conference hotels. |
Caruthers invited George Mason University to lease space for a marine graduate research division, and he hopes to persuade the Virginia Science Museum to use the area as a working, fresh-water aquarium.
North of Belmont Bay, along the Potomac River between Powells and Quantico creeks, Legend Properties of Woodbridge is developing a 2,800-acre project called Southbridge. The company envisions 4,500 homes in a range of architectural styles, an 18-hole golf course, a waterfront center featuring restaurants and shops, plus a commercial and industrial complex. "
Simply because Woodbridge has been Woodbridge for many years doesn't mean something special can't happen," Caruthers says.
* * *
While county leaders are excited about these developments in eastern Prince William, the majority of the new businesses moving into the county are looking at sites on the west end. That area has access to Interstate 66 and is within 20 minutes of Tysons Corner and Washington Dulles International Airport.
The list of western Prince William developments is extensive, but all pale in comparison to the dreams of Innovation@Prince William, the foundation on which county leaders hope to build a prosperous business community. The 529-acre research and development park, which the county purchased in 1997, hopes to attract telecommunications firms, advanced manufacturing and biomedical research companies. Plans for the Innovation project include an 18-hole golf course, a hotel and conference center, plus retail, office and industrial and distribution space.
The anchor of this new business park is The American Type Culture Collection, dubbed the "Library of Congress for biological cultures." This extensive collection of bacteria and viruses is securely housed in an 88,000-square-foot, $20 million building on George Mason University's 125-acre Prince William campus. The building is shared by The Institute for Biosciences, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, an entrepreneurial center hoping to attract academic innovation.
"The park itself is not as well-known throughout the metro area as we would like because it's new," Briley says. "But every client we bring in loves it."
An even bigger eye-opener is Dominion Semiconductor, a $1.7 billion computer-chip plant that set up shop in Manassas three years ago. The plant, a joint venture between Toshiba and IBM, promises to employ 1,200 people and is expected to contribute more than $5 million to city coffers each year.
"We have long left behind the image in reality but not in perception that culture and high tech stop at the Fairfax County border," says Roger Snyder, the city's director of community development. "The Dominion Semiconductor plant goes a long way to overcoming that perception."
* * *
Manassas, with 34,000 residents, is the second fastest-growing city in the state. This small town, and neighboring Manassas Park, was engulfed by suburban sprawl in the '70s and '80s. But its quaint core has undergone a dramatic revitalization in the 1990s.
Scott Rearich, 27, catches the milky foam from his cappuccino machine as he tends to one of his customers. It's a cold winter day at The Lazy Bean, a cozy place to meet for coffee, a game of chess or a business discussion. Snyder takes most of his business prospects there for a hot brew to sell them on the merits of the city while they sit back in reclining chairs and listen to classical music.
Manassas keeps up its good looks with Victorian homes, tree-lined boulevards and a turn-of-the-century train depot. But this is not your typical Virginia burg. Lockheed Martin employs 2,000 people in the city, which boasts a regional mall and the largest general aviation airport in Virginia.
"Tysons Corners are a dime a dozen," Snyder says. "We want to be a unique city."
