New Town offers office, residential, retail, dining and entertainment, blending the best in American town planning with infrastructure technologies.

New Town Enriches Historical City

WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA –Historic Williamsburg, Virginia will be the site of a 600-acre master-planned development called New Town.  Conveniently located in James City County at the crossroads of Route 199, Monticello Avenue and Ironbound Road, New Town is adjacent to the College of William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg. 

The development will offer unique office, residential, shopping, dining and entertainment facilities.   Commercial office and residential areas will surround and interface with the retail components to form a balanced pedestrian-friendly place to work, shop and relax.   Four public “Greens” will offer venues for residents and visitors to gather and enjoy the beautiful landscaping, which will feature an interactive fountain.  New Town is designed to blend the best in traditional American town planning with the latest in communication and infrastructure technologies.

Plans for New Town include: 340,000 square feet of retail, 194,000 square feet of office space, a 150-room hotel and conference center, approximately 585 units of multifamily townhomes and single-family detached homes, 53,900 square feet of restaurants and a 10-screen stadium-seating cinema. 

“The key to the viability and success of this project is two-fold.  It is centrally located with great interstate access, which is crucial to the regional, as well as national retail players,” says Melissa Martinovich, vice president of office and retail leasing for the Newport News office of Divaris Real Estate.  “The high-end mixed used concept, combining the old and the new offers the customer on the Virginia Peninsula a different and exciting retail venue.”

The retail portion of New Town is being designed by CMSS Architects and developed by Armada Hoffler Development Company, both of which are headquartered in the Town Center of Virginia Beach.

Divaris Real Estate, Inc. has been appointed as the exclusive leasing agents for the retail space in New Town.  Martinovich and Linda Robey of DRE’s Newport News office are handling the leasing of the retail space. 

Williamsburg and James City County are located midway between the York and James Rivers in the northern part of Hampton Roads, along the Virginia Peninsula.   Located halfway between Richmond and Norfolk along Interstate 64, Williamsburg is 150 miles from Washington D.C. and the “Internet Capital of the World” in Northern Virginia, and within 750 miles of two-thirds of the nation’s population!

The Williamsburg area attracts over 4 million visitors annually, bringing $700 million in tourist dollars each year.  Besides Colonial Williamsburg, America’s largest living history museum, area attractions include The PGA Tour at Kingsmill Resort, Anheuser Busch Brewery, Busch Gardens amusement park and Water Country USA.   The proximity to Virginia Beach’s oceanfront is also a big draw for family vacationers.   Colonial Williamsburg was named the best historic site by Southern Living’s Readers Choice Awards in 2000.

“This area is becoming popular because of the larger tracks of undeveloped land that are available, and its central location and easy access to both Richmond and Hampton Roads,” according to Rob Hicks, vice president of retail services in Divaris’ Virginia Beach office.   “The Interstate and highway access lends itself to a larger regional draw, such as a cinema or destination retail.”  The site is an easy 50-minute commute to Richmond and only 45 minutes from Norfolk or Virginia Beach.

A new beltway on Route 199 was completed in 2000 to link Interstate 64, at the north end of Williamsburg, to the city center at Route 5 and Monticello Avenue.   This was planned to cut a significant amount of travel time for residents and to enhance development in the western part of the city.

“A younger population is finding Williamsburg a perfect place to raise a family because of the new growth and the excellent school systems.   It is no longer just a great place to retire,” Hicks said.

In fact, Williamsburg is one of the most affluent communities in Hampton Roads.  According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, the average household income in James City County/Williamsburg is $93,324.  The total population within a ten-mile radius of the property is 71,556.

The Casey family, a prominent family in Williamsburg since the 1700s, has owned the land on which New Town is being constructed.   The Caseys resisted the pressure to develop it for so many years, waiting for the right vision and the right moment in time.  The business, academic, civic and political community came together to reshape the region’s future with a harmonious, mixed-use residential and economical commercial space that allows companies to establish roots and expand.   Armada Hoffler, CMSS Architects, and Divaris Real Estate together with The Endowment Foundation of William & Mary and the Casey family, are creating the second revolution in Williamsburg’s illustrious history.

Since 1693, The College of William & Mary has been preparing presidents and scholars, inventors and entrepreneurs.  This world-class institution of higher learning is the second-oldest college in the country and one of the top 100 wired institutions, proclaims, Yahoo!  Internet Life magazine. U.S. News and World Report declared it the best small public university in the country. 

The college has 5,500 undergraduates and roughly 2,000 graduate students studying marine science, applied science, biology, physics, chemistry, business, education, law, history, anthropology and American studies.  William & Mary sponsored research expenditures totaled more than $21 million in 1999.  Cutting-edge research in applied science included plasma and laser processing and advanced materials processes for manufacturing.  Innovations in the fields of computer science, computational modeling and simulation have been made at William & Mary. 

Studies have found that companies with university ties have productivity rates almost two-thirds higher than their peers with no university research and consulting partnerships.  With faculty members eager to begin collaborative research, it is safe to say that highly skilled employees can be found very close to home at New Town in Williamsburg.

High-tech companies and research facilities will find in New Town a setting unlike a typical office park.   Situated minutes from rambling rivers and the majestic Chesapeake Bay, the genteel, timeless charm of Williamsburg has been preserved.   The development is wired, but environmentally conscious, creating a community of bike paths and walking trails without the suffocating energy consumption of a typical automobile-centered suburb.  New Town will be a commercial corridor designed to ease traffic and air pollution, raise the quality of life and build a sense of community.    Williamsburg is a place where employees and their families will thrive in tight-knit neighborhoods with clean water and great schools.