Cornering An Outstanding Market
The Corner at Short Pump in an affluent Richmond, Virginia, market expands Archon’s development repertoire.
Randall Shearin

Archon Group is scheduled to break ground on The Corner at Short Pump later this year with a projected 2009 opening.

A new mixed-use development from the retail team at Archon Group is scheduled to bring specialty retail, residence and office to one of Richmond, Virginia’s most desirable and strongest areas of residential and commercial growth. Called The Corner at Short Pump, this “village-scaled” mixed-use center is planned for the southwest corner of West Broad Street and West Lauderdale Drive in west Henrico County, directly opposite Forest City’s 3-year-old Short Pump Town Center regional mall.

Construction on The Corner at Short Pump is expected to begin in late 2007 and the center is scheduled to open in early 2009. Archon plans to build 210,000 square feet of specialty retail and services on the northern portion of this 41-acre site, as much as 40,000 square feet of office, and 80 residential town houses on the property’s southern side. The property was acquired in 2006 from the Bon Secours Hospital System, the region’s major health care entity. The Short Pump name originates from a long gone, but not forgotten, source of community water at what was once — and still is — a highly trafficked crossroads.

Select Site

Today, this location has matured and lies in the direct growth path of greater Richmond’s best demographics. The Corner at Short Pump is expected to be a perfect complement to Short Pump Town Center and its roster of quality tenants, including Nordstrom and Dillard’s, says David Paul, Mid-Atlantic director of retail investments for Archon Group, a subsidiary of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

The site, with 10 acres of zoning for retail development already on the books, was originally planned for a hospital, but Bon Secours decided on a different location for its new facilities. Archon won out among multiple bidders for this highly desirable property, in part because of its willingness to close the acquisition and then work through the rezoning process for a mixed-use development master site plan. The Corner at Short Pump has already received approval from Henrico County’s planning commission and is moving swiftly through the remainder of the approval process.

Overall, this high-income area of Richmond enjoys outstanding road access by way of I-295, the east-west running I-64, and the north-south running Route 288, which has been extended across the James River into Chesterfield County.

Village Center Platform

The Corner at Short Pump represents a newer development format for Archon Group Retail, which recently has embraced an aggressive development and delivery pipeline of superstore-anchored power centers on both greenfield and urban infill sites. These include Prestonwood Town Center in Dallas; Alamo Ranch in San Antonio; Fairlane Green Shopping Center in Allen Park, Michigan; Poplar Creek Crossing and Chatham Market in Hoffman Estates and Chicago, Illinois, respectively; and Shops at Grayhawk in Frisco, Texas.

“This development will be architecturally high-end and pedestrian-friendly, with an urban feel, lower in scale and height — more of a village as opposed to an imposing power center,” Paul explains. “The intent is to achieve a consumer-oriented, pedestrian-friendly environment, which will serve the local residents and the growth in nearby corporate headquarters, like those of Capital One and Carmax, while also providing destination appeal for the greater Richmond market.”

No tenants have been announced yet, but Paul says The Corner at Short Pump tenants will include specialty retailers in areas like books, apparel and home furnishings, service-oriented tenants, and family-oriented, sit-down restaurants.

According to Paul, Archon has made a special effort to answer the concerns and needs of residents of the nearby Wellesley neighborhood. To alleviate traffic congestion, Archon will construct a four-lane extension of Three Chopt Road from Lauderdale Drive to the west through the site in conformance with Henrico County’s Thoroughfare Plan. Design features include a substantial green buffer from major streets, secure crosswalks within the site, pedestrian connections to several communities south of the project, and protection of existing wetlands.

“The Corner at Short Pump represents the quality that communities are looking for today in terms of thoughtfully filling out the shopping and living environment through mixed-use, while accommodating retailer requirements in site layout, visibility and access,” Paul says.