New Towncenter in Gainesville VA

Gainesville Guy wrote:

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As for this on topic question, according to contract bidding sites the construction for both the theater and the main section of the Promenade are slated to start this June. Crossing my fingers nothing has changed over last couple months, but if everything is still a go we should see major activity starting any day now...

Thanks, hope to see some more construction activity soon.

Turns out the new Wal Mart may increase my home's value by 2-3%.
"Walmart often faces strong local opposition when trying to build a new store. Opponents often claim that Walmart lowers nearby housing prices. In this study we use over one million housing transactions located near 159 Walmarts that opened between 2000 and 2006 to test if the opening of a Walmart does indeed lower housing prices. Using a difference-in-differences specification, our estimates suggest that a new Walmart store actually increases housing prices by between 2 and 3 percent for houses located within 0.5 miles of the store and by 1 to 2 percent for houses located between 0.5 and 1 mile."

http://papers.nber.org/papers/w18111...

Maybe your home value increase in $$$ but how about the traffic, the local shops that will close, the effect on restaurants, the loss of competition in the marketplace, the loss of full time jobs that are replaced by an army of low-paid part time jobs. Sure, your house is worth a few thousand dollars more while WalMart gets even bigger and Richard. The developer - Eden & Avant - also gets richer.

Home value captures increase in demand fo housing in the area which accounts for all of the nuisances you have listed. Sure, these hassles may increase (or infrastructure may increase in response), but home values increase anyway. Usually those nuisances would account for a decrease in home value.
Add just a Wal-Mart, and avoid the nuisances, and home values might increase even more.
I'll drop the topic there, but as part of a running thread I had mentioned that there was serious academic research on the topic in the past, and as I cam across that link today I wanted to back up my earlier claims.
I live in very close proximity to the construction, and thus stand to lose the most. Maybe I'm just being optimistic. ;)

Home values increased tremendously from 2000 to 2006 - Here in Gainesville, you could have burnt your house down, and it would still have increased in value.

I really do not think there is a correlation between WalMart and your house value. Retail Development and housing yes.

Kim wrote:

Home values increased tremendously from 2000 to 2006 - Here in Gainesville, you could have burnt your house down, and it would still have increased in value.
I really do not think there is a correlation between WalMart and your house value. Retail Development and housing yes.

Totally agree! I don't think there were many markets in the US where the house values weren't going up between 2000-2006. If they did the studies now, there might be a different result.

Bobby wrote:

Maybe your home value increase in $$$ but how about the traffic, the local shops that will close, the effect on restaurants, the loss of competition in the marketplace, the loss of full time jobs that are replaced by an army of low-paid part time jobs. Sure, your house is worth a few thousand dollars more while WalMart gets even bigger and Richard. The developer - Eden & Avant - also gets richer.

Everybody run!!! Walmart is coming Walmart is coming and it is EVIL!

Chicken Little wrote:

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Everybody run!!! Walmart is coming Walmart is coming and it is EVIL!

evil? no, but Walmart does suck!

I drove past the Promenade site today.
There were a few smallish bulldozers with actual people in them, and they were moving earth. It wasn't a major operation, but there were also a few pieces of excavation hardware out there.

Anyone know where VRE might build a station if all goes well with their environmental study?

Haymarket is on record as not wanting the VRE stop in Haymarket.

Bobby wrote:

Haymarket is on record as not wanting the VRE stop in Haymarket.

Haymarket is on record for not wanting the Walmart as well LOL. There is plenty of room for a VRE station just outside of Haymarket, as well many potential spots in Gainesville.

I know many will probably disagree and I am no expert, but in my opinion having Haymarket as a seperate entity with its own government and all the overhead associated with that is just completely obsolete now. That was probably useful long ago when they were an isolated island in the middle of nowhere and its residents needed better services. But nowadays the PWC infrastructure has grown around them and Haymarket is now just an archaic remnant of the past, trying to remain relevant by attemting to grab the land around them. I will be curious to see how the courts view that land acquisition attempt, and what PWC will do to counter it. If I lived in Haymarket I'd be wondering why I pay more taxes then everybody else in the area...

When I bought my place I didn't agree to be annexed by Haymarket and pay taxes to yet another government entity. The fact that they're trying to deal with this through some archaic loophole within the court system and not even put it up to a vote from surrounding homeowners tells me all I need to know about wanting to become part of that town.

Getting back to the VRE situation, I remember skimming through their analysis documents and had a potential Gainesville station close to where 66 and the 234 bypass are located. There's plenty of space there and using the new park-and-ride lot that currently going up would probably make the most sense. The potential Haymarket station looked like it was somewhere SW of the town, close to where the new Piedmont development will be going.

Unfortunately though the documents also spell out the huge challenges that face the planners in trying to get VRE out to the area. Aside from having a lack of funds, the logistics of essentially 'creating' a new branch of the Manassas line and re-negotiating the terms with Norfolk Southern (since VRE basically leases the rail lines from them and they are at capacity as it is) seems pretty daunting. I think VRE to the area is more of a 10+ year goal than anything you'd be seeing in the near future.

Funny thing is, if Haymarket annexes enough people that don't want to be a part of Haymarket, the new residents they get can put up candidates that run on a platform of disolving Haymarket entirely. Haymarket may be annexing themselves right out of existance if they aren't careful LOL.

And I agree on the long timeframes for VRE. When I first read about VRE to Gainesville several YEARS ago they were projecting it would take like 20 years or so. I couldn't believe it would take that long to be honest, but here we are several years later and it is still several years away.

For me personally I could care less about the VRE, but I'd like to see it here as it is probably a plus for the area in general.

Gainesville Guy wrote:

Funny thing is, if Haymarket annexes enough people that don't want to be a part of Haymarket, the new residents they get can put up candidates that run on a platform of disolving Haymarket entirely. Haymarket may be annexing themselves right out of existance if they aren't careful LOL.
And I agree on the long timeframes for VRE. When I first read about VRE to Gainesville several YEARS ago they were projecting it would take like 20 years or so. I couldn't believe it would take that long to be honest, but here we are several years later and it is still several years away.
For me personally I could care less about the VRE, but I'd like to see it here as it is probably a plus for the area in general.

It's definitely something we won't be seeing anytime soon. Assuming the funding magically appears today it would still probably be 5-6 years before VRE trains are running through Haymarket/Gainesville, when you factor in planning, engineering, and construction.

I'm in the same boat with you on it though, although it doesn't directly affect me (the days where it would have, have passed), I have an indirect stake in seeing VRE come out there. It helps the area's image overall with the types of people that don't mind longer commutes as long as public transportation is available.

Talking with an employee sitting in front of Famous Dave's this afternoon, she said they are planning on opening on June 11. I think they will do much better than Uno's!

Vint Hill might finally be getting a little Main Street town center finally. After almost 10 years since it's initial development something might be happening. Won't be the large town center initially designed for the front of the community facing Vint Hill Road. This development will be along Aiken Dr where the post office and barber shop are and connect to the the Vint Hill Winery and Cold war Museum. The only down side I see to the development is there would be more housing built, but I guess it is needed to help support the shops and food services. Now that the Vint Hill Parkway and Brookside Parkway will finally be connected (work has started), that will also help bring over Brookside residents.
http://www.gainesville-times.com/news/2012/ma...

Vint Hill Guy wrote:

Vint Hill might finally be getting a little Main Street town center finally. After almost 10 years since it's initial development something might be happening. Won't be the large town center initially designed for the front of the community facing Vint Hill Road. This development will be along Aiken Dr where the post office and barber shop are and connect to the the Vint Hill Winery and Cold war Museum. The only down side I see to the development is there would be more housing built, but I guess it is needed to help support the shops and food services. Now that the Vint Hill Parkway and Brookside Parkway will finally be connected (work has started), that will also help bring over Brookside residents.
http://www.gainesville-times.com/news/2012/ma...

Nice.. I noticed more work going on at the Promenade site this AM as well. Bulldozers, and drills. I wouldn't be too surprised to hear/feel some blasting soon.
There was also an SWRodgers truck pumping water (rain water I assume) away from a particular spot right near Linton Hall Rd.

Washington Business Journal has an article on the upcoming Volcano Hot Stone Grill:

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/print-e...

An independant, upscale, and unique restaurant opening in Gainesville...

Gainesville Guy wrote:

Washington Business Journal has an article on the upcoming Volcano Hot Stone Grill:
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/print-e...
An independant, upscale, and unique restaurant opening in Gainesville...

Uhhh not signing up to the WBJ to read the entire article :-(