Shortly after the signalized intersection at Rio Road and U.S. 29 was converted to an underpass in July 2016, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors adopted a small area plan to encourage redevelopment of the immediate area to be more dense to meet the needs of the 21st century.
“The plan identifies the Rio Road/29 intersection as the heart of urban Albemarle County and it designated the four quadrants as critical for the commercial corridor’s future,” says Emily Kilroy, Albemarle’s interim economic development director. “It envisions a dense, walkable, bikeable transit-connected environment.”
Nearly six years later, the county entered into a public-private partnership with Home Depot to redevelop the former Sears at Fashion Square Mall into a new store and garden center. The Atlanta-based retailer purchased the site, as well as dozens of individual retail spaces inside the mall, in September 2022.
County officials have approved plans for the new store, but Home Depot’s development costs have increased.
“It was primarily associated with the demolition of the former Sears and the Sears Auto Center, which had a requirement for asbestos abatement as well as brownfield remediation,” said J.T. Newberry, deputy director of the Albemarle Office of Economic Development.
Newberry told the board of supervisors on August 21 that the higher costs may have been a barrier to Home Depot proceeding. The county and its Economic Development Authority negotiated terms for a tax increment financing agreement under the codename Project Julius to grant up to $750,000 in real property tax rebates over 10 years.
In exchange, Home Depot has to be open by December 24, 2025. The company will also dedicate land for a future realignment of Hillsdale Drive, called for in the Rio Road plan.
“They will help actively market the former Red Lobster site, which is currently vacant,” Newberry said.
In addition to more property taxes to be generated from the site, Newberry said Albemarle expects the new store to produce between $400,000 and $500,000 a year in local sales taxes. He said the store is expected to create 100 jobs.
Kilroy says Fashion Square Mall is ripe for a public-private partnership to try to implement that vision. She presented the Board of Supervisors with a slide depicting the decline in value from around $70 million in 2014 to just below $20 million this year.
“Redevelopment of this parcel will correct what has been a stark decline in property value for this area,” Kilroy says, adding that the county’s investment will support the first major private reinvestment since the Rio Road plan was adopted.
Belk Stores of Virginia continues to own its store, and developer Richard Hewitt owns the former JCPenney. Albemarle County now rents a portion of that property for a public safety fleet operations center.
Other investments in the area have not had a public component. Earlier this year, the Carter Machinery Company purchased a 4.67-acre property to the east of the Northside Library for $3.53 million. It has since opened a rental store for construction and lawn equipment, eliminating parking spaces that had been rented for library patrons.