DRE's Kent Cardwell completed ten transactions for Dollar General in 2004.

Major Retailers Expand Throughout Virginia

 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA -- Several major national retailers are expanding throughout Virginia, and Divaris Real Estate is helping them find new locations.

      “Virginia is a very sought-after state,” notes Kent Cardwell, DRE’s exclusive representative for Dollar General in central and western Virginia. “Virginia’s retail track record in most of the markets is good, and I’m optimistic that it’s going to continue to be a sought-after retail destination.”

      Dollar General has signed a lease for roughly 8,000 square feet in Westland Shopping Center in Richmond, joining Books A Million, Total Wine and Lone Star Steak House. Last year alone, Cardwell completed transactions for ten new stores for the company, throughout Virginia.

      “More often than not, Dollar General’s typical deal is in a smaller town where the retailer can locate and make a big splash, with about a 9,000 square-foot store,” says Cardwell.

      “One thing I like about Dollar General is that they’re not afraid to go into a larger market by their standards, which would be Richmond, Roanoke or the Hampton Roads area,” he says. “But they also will go into very small markets, and that’s what they do mostly. They look for a minimum of 8,000 people in the trade area, and if they think the location is good enough, they’ll even go below that population benchmark.”

      Dollar General typically opens more than 700 stores a year, and with another 700 stores planned for 2005, the company doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

      Debbie Wake, vice president for DRE’s Richmond office, has helped Best Buy, PETsMART, and Ross Dress for Less find new locations in Virginia. According to Wake, Best Buy generally looks for sites with high traffic counts, excellent visibility and strong incomes; Ross looks for good co-tenancy and a strong retail shopping area surrounding the center; while PETsMART likes an area with lots of families, higher income levels and, obviously, a high percentage of pets.

Best Buy's Colonial Heights store is one of three new sites in Virginia.

       Recently, Best Buy leased 30,000-square-foot stores in two Virginia centers. The company signed a lease for a store in Chesapeake’s Crossroads Shopping Center. The space was formerly part of a Wal-Mart store, located across Portsmouth Boulevard from Chesapeake Square Mall. Other tenants in Crossroads include Ross Dress for Less, T.J. Maxx, Old Navy and S&K Menswear. Best Buy also leased space in Dimmock Square Shopping Center in Colonial Heights, along with Target, Old Navy and Shoe Carnival.

      “The Colonial Heights location was a perfect fill-in to Best Buy’s other two locations in Richmond,” notes Wake. “The synergy with the other major retailing in that area, including Target and Old Navy, which has opened up adjacent to it, as well as Sam’s, Wal-Mart and the regional mall, allows us to tap into the Southern part of that market.”

      The 18,000-plus-square-foot Old Navy store in Crossroads Shopping Center was also secured by the Virginia Beach office of Divaris Real Estate.

      PETsMART has signed leases for several locations in Virginia, including Parc Place at Short Pump and Hanover Square South in Mechanicsville, which now gives them eight locations in Richmond. Parc Place also has a Ted’s Montana Grill, and Hanover Square South, a Target-anchored center, is adjacent to Home Depot and BJ’s Wholesale.

      “Short Pump is a very high growth area – Short Pump Town Center was one of two new malls that opened in Richmond last year,” says Wake, “and Parc Place is on the ring road of that mall.  Hanover Square South has also been a high-growth area with the commercial retailers starting to realize that Mechanicsville is a market that’s underserved.”

      PETsMART has also secured space in Windsor Meade Marketplace in Williamsburg, joining Bed Bath & Beyond, Office Depot and Belk in the shopping center.  Anne Millar Wright of DRE’s Virginia Beach office represents PETsMART in Hampton Roads.

      Ross Dress for Less signed a lease for 30,000 square feet in Towne Square in Roanoke, seizing the opportunity to be in a center that has good co-tenancy with Sam’s, Marshall’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Michaels and Shoe Carnival.

      Kohl’s department stores added two new stores in Virginia including one for over 88,000 square feet in Chester’s Breckenridge Center and in Jefferson Commons, a new development in the Patrick Henry Mall area of Newport News.

      Office Depot also expanded its presence in Virginia with new locations in Richmond’s Stratford Hills and Williamsburg’s Windsor Meade Marketplace, at roughly 19,000 square feet each. 

      Other retailers that have entered the Virginia market include Off Broadway Shoes, which signed a lease for 21,000 square feet in Jefferson Commons in Newport News, and Wal-Mart, which purchased an 18.5-acre Supercenter site in South Hill.  Millar Wright, together with John Ingram of Ingram Realty Advisors, represented Off Broadway Shoes, and John Knibb, a 20-year veteran of Divaris, represented Wal-Mart. The South Hill location is the 27th transaction Knibb has undertaken for Wal-Mart in Virginia.

      An exciting new retailer that Divaris has started to represent is Caribou Coffee.   Mary McGovern and Erica Meekins of DRE’s Virginia Beach office launched an extensive search for multiple locations for this renowned national coffee house in Hampton Roads.

      As far as the future for retail in Virginia, Brett Womack, senior vice president of DRE’s Richmond office, sees in-fill growth continuing in Richmond, particularly along the newly opened Route 288 corridor near Short Pump.  There are a number of mixed-use centers on the drawing boards as well as several new projects in the pipeline in eastern and southern Richmond due to recently announced residential developments. The next 18 months will be busy for retail in the western part of the state as well. 

       Boscov’s Department Store will open its first western Virginia location in Danville’s Piedmont Mall late this year.  “We are actively seeking three more locations for Boscov’s in western Virginia and hope to be able to announce two locations in Richmond sometime next year for this exciting retailer,” says Womack. 

      John Wingfield, principal of DRE’s Richmond office, agrees that retailers are continuing their search for sites particularly in western Virginia, but he notes that due to lack of developable land and government restrictions, it is becoming increasingly difficult for retailers to find the right opportunities.