In the Heart of Gainesville, Filling the 'Luxury Gap'

Gainesville's Virginia Gateway will expand in the next two years to become the 10th-largest shopping center in the Washington region, culminating with the debut of Market Square, a 500,000-square-foot mixed-use development with office space, shopping, entertainment and dining.

Like the Potomac Town Center under construction in Woodbridge, the project is designed to address a "luxury gap" in Prince William County that often drives the county's more affluent residents to shop and dine elsewhere. It will also attempt to give the Gainesville area -- where thousands of new residences have been built in the past decade -- a kind of town square offering residents a pedestrian-friendly space to "hang out," said Paul Weinschenk, vice president of the Peterson Cos. and the project manager for the Virginia Gateway site.

"If you've got an out-of-town guest and want to show off where you live, this is the place you'll want to take them," he said.

The Fairfax-based development company announced last week that a Best Buy will open at Virginia Gateway this fall, and a HoneyBaked Ham franchise is to open early next year. Construction is underway to double the amount of retail space at the shopping center to more than 1.5 million square feet.

"There isn't enough retail to go around," said May Canete, the company's marketing manager. "Peterson recognizes that there are a lot of families moving out to the area, and we want to bring them all that they need. That includes services, retail, restaurants and entertainment."

A movie theater is also planned for the site, near Interstate 66 and Lee Highway. The company also said it envisions several forms of outdoor entertainment once Market Square is complete, including musicians, storytellers and puppeteers.

Peterson's other development projects include Fairfax Corner, the redevelopment of downtown Silver Spring and the future National Harbor. Project manager Weinschenk described Gainesville as a "creature of suburban development" sorely in need of a central meeting place.

"The idea with the project is to give people an attractive reason to want to shop in their own community," said Weinschenk, describing that motivation as "a sense of being somewhere you want to spend time in -- not just to come, park your car and leave."

Other stores expected to open next summer include Sports Authority, Linens-N-Things and World Market. According to company estimates, Best Buy will employ 110 people when it opens this fall, increasing the number of workers at Virginia Gateway to more than 600.