| back to News > New On The Ridge: Goose Creek Village Takes Shape November 5, 2009 John Toler, louduni.com The walls are rising on the first two commercial structures in the Goose Creek Village Center on Belmont Ridge Road, surrounded by grading and infrastructure work on the rocky hillside. The project is on schedule, with the Sunoco service station and convenience store to open in December 2009, and the Walgreens store to open in February 2010. The Harris-Teeter grocery, another anchor store, is scheduled to open in October 2011. Along with the additional shops and restaurants, the commercial area will be served by 545 surface parking spaces and 39 on-street spaces on Sycolin Road, which will become the project’s "Main Street." And according to the developer, Allan McKelvie, of Washington, D.C., he has been contacted by several local businesses interested in opening in the new commercial area. With the recent improvements made on Sycolin Road at Goose Creek Village, the speed limit was permanently reduced to 25 mph. Offices and Homes The site plan for the Century Corner small office complex on Sycolin Road was recently approved, and according to McKelvie, talks are moving ahead with a group that is interested in building a fitness center with swimming pool in the Century Corner project. Due to its prime location on three main highways, the developer is counting on 86,000 vehicles per day passing by Goose Creek Village on the Greenway; 34,000 per day on Belmont Ridge Road; and 7,500 per day on Sycolin Road by 2011. In the meantime, sales of the residential components of Goose Creek Village continue strong, with the 100-unit Phase I project on the south side of Sycolin Road filled, and about 30 units of Phase II, the 600-unit Goose Creek North, are already pre-sold. "Home sales are running about five per month in Phase II, said John Paltin of Goose Creek Village LLC. "We expect that when the model homes are up, we’ll be selling 10 to 12 units a month." Centex Homes is building the new units, "…and those white pipes you can see sticking out of the ground north of the Sunoco station are for the Centex townhouses that will be built," added McKelvie. "Soon, those houses will be coming out of the ground." New Roads and More Along with significant changes in the topography along Belmont Ridge and Sycolin roads, preliminary work on the entrances to the project are now taking shape. Especially evident is the main interior roadway leading to the Sunoco station and residential section that will tie in with the intersection at Belmont Ridge Road and Hay roads. "Due to the wet weather, paving of the interior roads, including the entrance on Belmont Ridge Road has been delayed," said McKelvie. As for the necessity of a traffic controls at the intersection, McKelvie explained that a future VDOT traffic survey will determine whether or not installing traffic lights would be warranted. In the meantime, the developer has installed the needed infrastructure and paid for the signals. The rocky ridge where the project is being built continues to offer challenges, but "…that was figured into the budget," said McKelvie. Since last year, passersby have witnessed the huge earthmoving machines breaking up the stones and grading the mounds in order to provide for the infrastructure that will lie below Goose Creek Village. With most of the heavy work done, the focus is now on the sidewalks, retaining walls and other features that will eventually contribute to the completed project. But even no small detail goes unnoticed. "In about three weeks, we will start the landscaping in front of the Sunoco station, including some large caliper trees," concluded McKelvie. |
