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History in the Making
Playing off the historic heritage of the circa 1758 town of Leesburg, Va., joint-venture developers Cypress Equities and Kettler will develop The Village of Leesburg, a mixed-use project that will include retail, office, restaurants and residential. Wegmans will anchor the village center, which will be home to national and regional retailers and upscale restaurants. Upon completion, the village center will include 430,000 sq. ft. of retail space, 137,000 sq. ft. of office space and 25,000 sq. ft. of restaurant space.
Cypress Equities will develop the retail portion of the project; Kettler will develop the project’s office space, the hotel and conference center, and the residential components, which include apartments, condominiums and a 300-home active-adult residential community.
Work is under way on two new roads and an interchange; construction on The Village of Leesburg is slated to start spring 2007.
New Life in Macon, Ga.
A joint-venture development between Jim Wilson & Associates and General Growth Properties is under way, and will bring a desirable Main Street shopping center to a 67-acre site in Macon, Ga. The Shoppes at River Crossing, which began site work last August and launched construction shortly thereafter, will feature 735,000 sq. ft. of retail, including a 300,000-sq.-ft. lifestyle center, two department stores and a 100,000-sq.-ft. power-center component.
Architectural firm CMH Architects of Birmingham, Ala., has designed a Main Street layout for the center, with a contemporary architectural design that features a village green with European-style kiosks and a children’s park.
Completion is slated for spring 2008.
Duane Reade’s EastCoast Presence
EastCoast, a mixed-use development in the northernmost section of Queens West on the waterfront in Long Island City, N.Y., will be home to a 10,000-sq.-ft.Duane Reade drug store. Opening in the second of EastCoast’s two rental towers, Duane Reade has committed to a 15-year lease with plans to open in 2008 when the second tower is completed. A yet-to-be-named food market will occupy the space adjacent to the drug store in the combination residential-retail development.
Small Luxuries
In just 16-ft. by 16-ft., high-end luxuries will be presented to shoppers at The Shops at Columbus Circle in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Luxury Merchandising Units, or LMUs, leased to Petrossian, Swarovski and Johnnie Walker Blue, were unveiled during the 2006 holiday season, with additional luxury brands to be added for 2007.
The self-contained stores, modeled after the pop-up store trend, feature their own entrances, warm wooded walls and glass shelves, and are designed to blend with the elegant surroundings of Time Warner Center.
The mobile rental spaces will be strategically placed to take advantage of high-traffic areas within the shopping center.