Wegman's, a privately owned, Rochester, N.Y.-based chain that reported sales of $3.3 billion last year, is known for its large selection of locally grown fresh produce and foods from around the world. The Sterling store is its first in the Washington area and its first in Virginia.
The shopping center is scheduled to open in 2006. Dulles 28 Centre will have a 151-suite Residence Inn by Marriott, which is under construction, and a Jack Nicklaus-designed 18-hole golf course and year-round golf academy. The academy is scheduled to open next summer, the golf course in 2006. Wegman's would be the anchor, with no other grocery or "big box" retailer envisioned.
Wegmans Food Market, opened in February, will anchor Dulles 28 Centre.
(Tracy A. Woodward -- The Washington Post)
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Metro Business: Coverage of Washington area businesses and the local economy.
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Lerner and Tower have owned the property since 1987. Fuccillo said the site wasn't ready to be fully developed until recently, in part because area road construction has made access more difficult.
"The interchange at Route 28 and Route 625 took a while to come under construction but now it's under construction," he said.
A bigger reason for not developing earlier, Fuccillo said, was the population of largely rural Loudoun.
"The population needed to mature, which it has," he said. "The population in Loudoun County has begun to flourish and expand. The growth has been explosive."
In a recent news release, Lerner and Tower trumpeted the site's location, three miles north of Dulles Airport and "within minutes" of employers such as AOL, MCI, Xerox and Cisco Systems. They noted that Loudoun has the fastest growing population in the United States and an average annual household income of $126,102.
"Those are important statistics," Fuccillo said. "The population has come to Loudoun and the time is ripe."
Victor E. Ambrosio, a senior leasing associate at Lerner, said the developers discussed whether the Dulles area could support a retail cluster so close to Dulles Town Center. "We wanted to make absolutely sure that what we were doing would be complementary," not in conflict with Dulles Town Center, he said.
Lerner has been negotiating with about 60 retailers, many of which lack a presence in the Dulles area, according to Fuccillo.
"So the question for me isn't so much will our tenants duplicate" what's being offered at Dulles Town Center, Fuccillo said. "These tenants will be coming to this area for the first time, providing people with more choices, which is what retailing is all about."
