Extreme Makeover On Route 1's Horizon

Route 1, the north-south roadway that time and poor zoning have turned into a hodgepodge of aging strip malls, gas stations and scrappy businesses, will be the site of major developments in the next two years that could change its reputation as Prince William County's second-rate retail and business district, a county planner said.

Pat Thomas, a county planner hired 2 1/2 years ago to transform Route 1, presented her second annual status report to the Board of County Supervisors at its meeting Tuesday. The plan for Route 1, which stretches 12 miles from Fairfax to Stafford counties, is called the Potomac Communities Revitalization Plan.

The $120 million Belmont Bay Science Center, set to break ground in summer 2006, and the $50 million Marine Corps Heritage Center, a national museum for the military branch set to open in November 2006, will serve as "bookends" of the revitalization, Thomas said.

In between, the corridor will be peppered with a new VRE station, a much-talked-about luxury hotel and conference center, a new fire station and the restored Rippon Lodge -- the oldest house still standing in Prince William, built about 1745.

The county's aggressive efforts to encourage development and pull together current businesses to cooperate with revitalization plans mirrors efforts in other communities up and down Route 1, from Maine to Florida, Thomas said in an earlier interview. Route 1 is one of the country's oldest roads and is known for its rough-and-tumble image, overshadowed by the newer parallel Interstate 95.

In Prince William, Route 1 has helped cement the county's image as a country cousin to other counties in Northern Virginia -- an image Prince William is trying to change by enforcing zoning laws and approving the development of higher-end housing stock. Most of the new development has occurred on the western end of the county, and the Potomac Communities concept could help the eastern end of the county catch up. "Route 1 has a stigma," Thomas said.

Supervisor Hilda M. Barg (D-Woodbridge) said that changing the image could start with changing the name. "I love the name 'Potomac Communities,' " she said. "We're tired of 'Route 1.' "

Potomac Communities "is something fresh and new," she said.

The Route 1 corridor will be the site of firsts. The Harbor Station Conference Center, which is scheduled to break ground in the fall and open in 2007, will feature the county's first luxury hotel. The conference center and hotel are part of the developer KSI Inc.'s plan for 1,700 acres of the Cherry Hill peninsula. More than 2,000 homes and a town center are also planned.

Also, on the southern end of Route 1, there are three office developments underway that will be the county's first office spaces designated as "class A," a top-notch category of office space that offers tenants fiber optic cabling for computers and other technology lacking in current office buildings, Thomas said.

All of the development must be accompanied by infrastructure, and the county will open the extension of the Prince William Parkway to Route 1 in October and is continuing to develop a gateway at the interchange of Routes 1 and 123, she said.

Barg said the county is seeing the culmination of several years of work. "I've seen more progress in the last two years than I've seen in the last 10 or 12 years," she said.

In an interview, Board of County Supervisors Chairman Sean T. Connaughton said that there is a growing interest from developers to take over old properties, and those deals should come to fruition in the coming months.