Fredericksburg’s growing appeal

FREDERICKSBURG Daily traffic congestion, rising costs and frazzled nerves have a growing number of individuals and businesses moving away from the Washington area into the counties of Stafford and Spotsylvania and the city of Fredericksburg.

Both groups are attracted to these appealing outlying areas because of the benefits they offer -- a better quality of life, a lower cost of living and a lower cost of doing business.

While transportation is always a high priority, access to the city of Fredericksburg has been made easier thanks to the Virginia Railway Express, which provides commuter service to Washington.

"We are the southernmost stop on the Virginia Railway Express, so we have become a bedroom community for Washington, D.C., on its southern side," said Kevin Gullette, Fredericksburg's director of economic development and tourism.

When it comes to commercial growth, the 10-square-mile city cannot expand past its boundaries. That reality has city leaders looking at other avenues of growth such as infill and mixed-use developments. Fredericksburg's Jump Start plan targets older areas in the city as a way to redevelop its downtown.

"We are looking at major corridors to create more density in the city along with transit-oriented development around the train station," Gullette said.

The city is in the second year of implementing Jump Start.

"For a long time, we didn't have mixed-use ordinances because we didn't have mixed-use developments," Gullette said. "We are working on that now."

Quality-of-life issues, including housing and education, are important to individuals and businesses considering a move. Tim Baroody, Stafford County's deputy county administrator and director of economic development, sees the affordable cost of housing as well as the county's school system as huge draws.

"We have exceptional schools in Stafford," he said. "They have outperformed state averages on SATs and other tests."

Over the past decade, Stafford has been one of the fastest-growing localities in the nation. The county's population of 90,000 in the 2000 census has swelled to 125,000.

"From 2002 to 2007, we have added about 10,000 new jobs," Baroody said.

In that same period, according to statistics from the Virginia Employment Commission, Stafford had the fourth-highest growth rate in Virginia as far as wage growth by percentage (43.3 percent in its average weekly wage) and the third-highest growth rate in at-place employment growth, with a 34.3 percent increase. The county also had the fourth-highest business growth by percentage (36.7 percent from 2002 to 2007).

Stafford's decision to ramp up its commercial-development effort is paying off. Since 2004, the county has added about 1 million square feet of commercial development annually.

"Those numbers are historical for us," Baroody said. "Five or six years ago, we didn't have the basic retail amenities that other localities take for granted. We're on the map now with national retailers."

Businesses moving into the county are mainly government-related contractors.

"We have the presence of Quantico, which is home to the FBI National Academy and Crime Lab," Baroody said. "That is nice for Stafford. Quantico has a $2 billion annual impact on the region."

The 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission recommendations have had a positive impact on the Fredericksburg region. As bases are consolidated, the military is grouping services at various bases, including Marine Corps Base Quantico, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren and Fort A.P. Hill. This will add about 3,000 jobs in the region by 2011.

Spotsylvania County is seeing residual benefits from BRAC through an influx of defense contractors and technology-based companies. That represents a shift from the past when distribution and manufacturing operations dominated the economy.

"We have been the collection point for more smallto mid-size defense contractors like Davis Defense and EOIR Technologies," said Russ Seymour, Spotsylvania's director of economic development. "That is continuing to grow."

The increase in nonretail commercial development in 2007 resulted in the county's most successful year in history in regard to the amount of new project activity in that sector.

"This year, we are on pace with last year," Seymour said.

Commercial/retail development also is on the rise. Projects include the Spotsylvania Town Center, redevelopment of the Spotsylvania Mall and the addition of two large retail areas, Southpoint II and Cosner Corner.

"The Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, which will open in spring 2010, has spurred commercial development along I-95," Seymour said.

Stafford County also will have a 100-bed, state-of-the-art hospital when Medicorp Health System's Stafford Hospital Center opens early next year. The medical industry will play a role in Fredericksburg's growth, as well.

The city will benefit from a new medical-office campus near Mary Washington Hospital. It also will gain from the opening of Kalahari Resorts in 2010 on the Celebrate Virginia South Tourism campus. The $260 million project will feature a 720-plus room conference resort hotel with a 200,000-square-foot indoor water park. The resort will bring in about 800 jobs.

"In the last 18 months, close to $300 million of new investment has been announced," Gullette said. "That number includes the resort and the medical office campus."

Fredericksburg, as well as Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, is planning for steady growth, hoping to stave off such problems as traffic congestion that arise from lack of planning.

"Spotsylvania is fortunate because most of our development is along major existing corridors [Interstate 95 and U.S. 1]," Seymour said. "The county has been working to get ahead of the traffic-related concerns by working with developers at the initial planning stage to address transportation."

No one in either county or in Fredericksburg is playing the waiting game when it comes to economic growth.

"We are strategically planning," Baroody said. "We are working with developers to encourage growth to happen in the right places in our community."