Out of the big box: the old Ames store in Virginia Beach

VIRGINIA BEACH
Since late 2001, when Ames closed the doors to its Virginia Beach Boulevard department store, the 100,000-square-foot building has remained empty.

Occasionally, short-term tenants have used the space for a month or so at a time, said Cynthia Whitbred-Spanoulis with the city’s economic development office. But finding a permanent tenant for the property has proved more difficult.

The building, built in 1974 as a Zayre department store, later housed the Hills discount chain before becoming an Ames store in late 1998. Ames was short-lived at the site, and the national chain declared bankruptcy and went out of business in 2002.
Currently, the property is zoned to allow any retail, office or restaurant to go into the space.

And because the property is older, said Karen Lasley, a city zoning administrator, there were no conditions put on it when it was zoned. Any kind of use could go in, she said, and the large property could even be subdivided into smaller properties without requiring city approval.

That might be one way of making the big-box site more appealing to a potential buyer or tenant. City officials report there hasn’t been much recent interest in developing the property.

“I haven’t had any inquiries about it for a long time,” Lasley said.

Around 2004, a furniture store inquired about the site, and after that, there was interest from a local gym that had considered the location as well. But, city officials said the slow economy and the large site make the property a hard sell.

“You have to ask yourself who’s out there in terms of retailers that could take over,” Whitbred-Spanoulis said, “that are hot and that would go into a strip shopping center like that.”

“You’re somewhat limited,” she added.

Local property developer Wayne McLeskey, president of McLeskey & Associates in Virginia Beach, owns the property but did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

Some real estate experts think the city’s vacant big-box properties like the former Ames site, could soon be considered perfect for development. Should the light rail project extend to Virginia Beach, some of these properties may become valuable.

Mike Barrett, who works for the local commercial real estate firm The Runnymede Corp., said owners of these large sites should consider new land uses, possibly having the properties rezoned as mixed-use properties, which would allow them to include residential use as well.

Mixed use is a major theme of the Strategic Growth Areas that the city has designated for planned development, including seeking public input on what’s best for businesses and residents.
But the former Ames store is not in a Strategic Growth Area. It is just outside the Lynnhaven SGA. While areas such as Town Center have been under development for years, the Lynnhaven SGA is just beginning its strategic growth process. The boundary could someday be extended to include the Ames store.

Barrett serves as president of Virginia Beach Vision Inc., a nonpartisan group of civic leaders and business professionals that provide input on topics like economic development, transportation and environmental land use.

“I think there’s always the option you’ll get another big-box operator, but I would guess that chance diminishes over time,” Barrett said.

“The parcels of land now occupied by vacant big boxes and/or legacy shopping centers may be ideal candidates for new, vertical, multiuse developments combining restaurant, retail, office and in some cases, residential uses,” Barrett added. “Especially, to the degree that these parcels are located within the half-mile-or-so radius of a proposed light rail station.”