New Section of West Creek Being Developed
September 11, 2012
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Retail shops, apartments and medical offices are coming to a new section of the West Creek business park.
West Creek Associates LLC said Monday that it will develop a 230-acre portion in eastern Goochland County beginning this fall.
The swath of land is south of West Broad Street and east of the state Route 288 interchange.
The property, to be known as the Notch at West Creek, is zoned for multiple uses.
Space is designated along West Broad Street for retail development, with other areas for medical and general office development, hotels and apartment communities.
“We’re at the tail end of getting all our approvals,” said Tommy Pruitt, managing partner of West Creek Associates.
“We think we will be in very good shape to start the infrastructure construction within 45 days,” he said. The trunk lines for water, sewer and fiber optics are installed, and the utilities will be extended to individual sites.
Also, a 3-mile parkway will be built, providing West Creek with direct access for the first time to the vibrant West Broad Street corridor, Pruitt said.
“Goochland County has been very cooperative,” he said. “The county wants West Creek to push forward. We think it’s the right time.”
Pruitt said an apartment community is under contract and an 80,000-square-foot medical office is in the architectural drawing stages. “We have interest from several other users,” he said, declining to be more specific.
Mark Douglas with commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer said he is confident the Notch at West Creek will be developed.
“If the Pruitts say they are going to do something, they will do it,” he said, pointing to the family’s role in developing Short Pump Town Center, the Shops at White Oak Village, the Glen Forest Office Park and the Commerce Center office park, all in Henrico.
West Creek is owned and operated by Pruitt and his family’s Pruitt Cos.
The office park also is owned by the Riverstone Group, the Richmond-based company controlled by Richmonder William H. Goodwin Jr. and his family. Riverstone’s holdings include The Jefferson Hotel, Keswick Hall, and other high-end resorts and hotels.
The office park stretches from West Broad Street to state Route 6, just west of the Henrico line, with state Route 288 bisecting it.
The 3,500-acre business park is occupied by some of the largest employers in the Richmond area, including Capital One Financial Corp., CarMax, HCA, Virginia Farm Bureau, Performance Food Group and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
These tenants occupy about 2.1 million square feet in West Creek. More than 10,000 people work at the park, and more than 1 million people live within a 30-mile radius, West Creek officials said.
Other developers have plans along West Broad Street in Henrico east of the Notch at West Creek site.
Atack Properties plans a 70-acre commercial and residential project on the north side of West Broad Street. Lingerfelt Development hopes to turn 69 acres across the street into another mixed-use project.
Those projects are still in the approval process.
The Notch name comes from the historical Three Notch’d Road, an east-west thoroughfare across central Virginia during the Colonial period.
A section of Broad Street follows the historic path and borders the property. Remnants of Three Notch’d Road are now known as Three Chopt Road.
Two roads run through the business park: West Creek Parkway and Tuckahoe Creek Parkway. Both are four-lane divided roads with interchange access to Route 288.
West Creek has about 1,700 undeveloped acres with large contiguous tracts still available. About 800 acres are sold, and 650 acres are preserved in a flood plain, primarily as a buffer along Tuckahoe Creek.