Aquia Town Center – Stafford, Virginia
This is the last remaining part of the shopping center that was mostly demolished after the REIT purchased the center in 2006. Rite Aid was the last traditional tenant in this space, while the developer occupied the other two spaces.
Aquia Town Center (or Town/Towne Center at Aquia if you must, seems like they have an identity crisis) is a failed redevelopment of a shopping center.
In 2006, a real estate investment trust purchased the shopping center, and began demolishing most of the shopping center. The successfully built the five story office building (which houses defense contractors) as well as the apartment complex. In 2015, a real estate developer purchased the remainder of the commercial property with plans to redevelop the center into a lifestyle center/town center type thing, and mostly secured the anchor (which replaced a movie theater) which was slated to be Harris Teeter.
Plans to develop the land stalled, due to the Stafford Board of Supervisors yanking tax incentives (millions of dollars) which ultimately led to Harris Teeter scrapping their plans to build a store in the shopping center. The last news I’ve seen was in regards to the Stafford Board of Supervisors terminating the agreement completely after the developer failed to replace the sign on Route 1. All that’s left (other than the aforementioned office building and apartment complex) are some outparcels, a bunch of undeveloped land, and the foundation for the future Rite Aid, which was also scrapped.
