DRE Focuses On Town Center Consulting

VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA -- Divaris Real Estate (DRE) will expand its consulting services to municipalities, residential developers, office building developers, and retail developers who desire to create new “Town Center” type mixed-use developments.  The Divaris Principal in charge of this consulting service will be John M. Millar, executive vice president.  He will be joined by Gerald Divaris, chairman/CEO, and Sandy Cohen, chief operating officer, in the execution of this service. 

      During his 33 years in the department store and commercial real estate business, Millar has handled all strategic aspects of developing and redeveloping all real estate asset classes – strip retail, office, regional malls, industrial properties, and mixed-use developments.

      Over the past 15 years, DRE has been a pioneer in the creation of mixed-use developments, combining its office building and retail expertise with multi-family residential and hotels.  Divaris’ initial venture into Town Center development was the creation of a “city center” for Virginia Beach – The Town Center of Virginia Beach.  This successful project, now in Phase III, brought Divaris recognition as an expert in the mixed-use development field.

      Currently, Divaris is involved in Town Center projects in Suffolk, Virginia; Newport News, Virginia; Charlotte, North Carolina; King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; Tampa, Florida; and Bethesda, Maryland.  Two of its most recent consulting projects – Rock Spring Centre in Bethesda and The Village at Valley Forge in King of Prussia – have developed a “niche” strategy to complement marketplaces that have dominant retail centers already.  As a result of these consulting assignments, Divaris was hired by its clients to implement the strategies that were created.

      The goals of the Consulting Group is to provide a team of disciplined professionals in the fields of market research, architecture, planning and design, municipal incentives for new development, cost estimating, marketing, and property management.  This team conducts feasibility studies for its clients to assess their project’s opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses.  Through these disciplined analyses, Divaris is able to recommend a clear business strategy to create the highest and best use.