COME CELEBRATE VIRGINIA!

THEN PAUSE TO REFRESH YOURSELF AT

 

THE SILVER COMPANIES UPTOWN

 

Nestled inside the Silver Companies’ mammoth 2,400-acre Celebrate Virginia! (crammed with large-scale excitement like the East Coast’s largest power center, a tourism hub, and a golf resort)---is Uptown, a small village and park setting comfortably reduced in scale from the hub-bub around it. Uptown invites visitors to come relax and stroll and shop...and shop...and shop!

 

If Billy Joel had only figured out what her turf was really like, he might have better understood his “Uptown Girl.” According to the Silver Companies, a Fredericksburg, Virginia commercial and mixed-use real estate developer, she was a shopper.  She liked to be entertained in beautiful surroundings. And she had great taste.

 

Silver Companies thinks there are a lot of people like that “Uptown Girl.” 

 

The company has backed up its beliefs by creating Celebrate Virginia!, a 2,400-acre planned mixed-use development in Fredericksburg that includes the East Coast’s largest power center, a tourism hub, a golf resort, and an office campus. Cost of development has been estimated at $2 billion.

 

Inside the power center, which is called Central Park, is the soon-to-be-completed  “Uptown,” a unique-concept town center that features a park setting for specialty shops, cafes, offices, and entertainment attractions that include an Olympic-sized skating rink.

 

A mock city street and wide pedestrian walkways, all framed by generous landscaping and park benches, will help create a casual and inviting small-town look. Also on-site in the $40- million project is parking for more than 1,500 vehicles.

 

Inside Central Park, a 2.4-million-sq. ft. power center, is

Uptown--26 acres of village shopping in a small town

and park setting with 285,000 sq. ft. for specialty shops,
cafes, offices, and entertainment attractions

 

Offering 285,000 sq. ft. of entertainment/retail space on 26 acres, Uptown has been designed as a shopping village within the larger context of the Central Park power center, which offers 2.4 million sq. ft. of space on 310 acres. In addition to 
its village atmosphere, Uptown is set apart from its surroundings by a distinctive Art Deco look designed by Tom Ganaway of Architectural Resources in Richmond, Virginia.

 

According to the commercial sales and leasing office of the Silver Companies, retail tenants in Uptown will include: Ambiance Day Spa and Salon; One Hour Photo; Motherhood Maternity; Uptown Nutrition; and Photoart. Negotiations are underway for a variety of national retail fashion tenants, including  a Gap and Gap Kids. Food retailers will include That’s Amore (Italian cuisine), Shark Club & Potomac Grill (combination billiards hall and restaurant), the Gray Wolf Grill (Mongolian barbeque), the Fushi Bar, Lee’s Ice Cream, and the Uptown cafe.

 

Retail facilities are all on ground level; office space is being leased on second and third floors. Openings will continue from the present through the end of 2000. At press time, the Silver Companies management estimated that 75,000-80,000 sq. ft. of space was still available for lease in units from 1,200 sq. ft. on up.

 

The surrounding Central Park complex has attracted major retailers including: Lowe’s, Target, Shopper’s Club, Kohl’s, Best Buy, Circuit City, Sports Authority, Office Depot, Borders, Toys ‘R Us, Pier 1, and PetsMart. Restaurants will include Applebee’s, Outback Steakhouse, Ruby Tuesday, IHOP, Fuddrucker’s, and Boston Market.

 

Also on-site will be a Sheraton Inn office and conference center, a 300,000-sq. ft. family entertainment center, a 15-screen Regal multi-plex theatre, and a 30,000-sq. ft. fitness center. A variety of other tenants will include banks, a video store and professional offices.

 

In addition to the healthy economic forecast for the region,

 the Central Park and Uptown shopping attractions are
expected to benefit significantly from a new access off I-95 

 

The major anchor for the Uptown project is the Fredericksburg Ice Park, a 32,000-sq. ft. full-service indoor ice skating facility that just opened its doors. Features include a 200-by-500-foot rink surrounded by lush foliage and natural lighting, viewing and bleacher seating for 500, a fully-stocked equipment and gift shop, cafe and video arcade, party rooms, glass-enclosed special event lounge, locker and shower rooms, and state-of-the-art sound and theatrical lighting systems.

 

The economy in the Fredericksburg region has been on an upward spiral since 1989. One reason for its economic expansion is its geographic location, sandwiched between Richmond and Washington, D.C. right along the I-95 corridor. Various studies have tapped Fredericksburg as leading the state of Virginia in average annual growth of population, employment and personal income.

Uptown and Central Park Demographics:

 

In addition to the healthy economic forecast for the region, the Central Park and Uptown shopping attractions are expected to benefit significantly from a new access off I-95. 

Retailers are on ground level (office space is
on second and third floors); management estimates

that 75,000-80,000 sq. ft. of space

is available for lease in units from 1,200 sq. ft.

 

Uptown promises to live up to its name. Larry Silver, CEO of the Silver Companies and a developer with quite a bit of experience under his belt, says, “It’s a very exciting project. You have to see it to believe it.”

 

And if Billy Joel ever decides to redo his old hit in honor of this Uptown, the new song would be named “Uptown Girls, Boys, Women, Men and Children Of All Ages.”

For more information about Uptown contact:

Silver Companies, P.O. Box 7566, 1201 Central Park Boulevard, Fredericksburg, VA 22404; 540-786-1405; Fax 540-786-1406.

For information about Uptown’s design, contact:

Tom Ganaway, President, Architectural Resources, Inc., 804-798-1085.