When New Town was first being developed there was a rush of local businesses to the area. Some of the older retail spaces became vacant despite their great locations and good exposure from passing traffic.
New Town is a great development and has a lot of good businesses, but it appears the rents are too high in some sections. I love walking around in New Town and enjoy the theater, restaurants and stores there.
I was happy to see Retro Daddio reopen in the shopping center across from Williamsburg Shopping Center. I am reminded of them almost daily as I drive down Monticello Avenue. Although they are in an older retail space, they are visible from passing traffic. This building seems more fitting of "Retro" Daddio. I remember this area being the center of shopping for the Williamsburg area. In high school we would go back and forth between Sal's restaurant and Milton's Pizza, and the Carmike Movie Theater which was in the same shopping center as Retro Daddio currently resides.
Now there are discussions of government getting involved in redoing the Williamsburg Shopping Center. Why not let it naturally evolve and remodel instead of tearing down and starting over. Use the existing structure and character of the current building. It appears that Food Lion, Sal's, And Ace Hardware are all doing well there.
I was sad to see the Williamsburg Outlet Mall razed. I know the prior owners tried to make it work, but did the new owners have to start fresh again? Couldn't they have worked with the County to use at least a portion of the building and existing parking lot? It seems wasteful
I own the building that Aladdin Consignment occupies on Merrimac Trail and I have slowly been pumping money back into it to remodel the exterior and interior. In addition, Aladdin has made their store look great.
I would love to see some of these older shopping centers fill up again with local businesses, and also national chains. I think Trader Joes could have retrofitted any existing building in town and people would still flock to it. Let's follow the lead of Retro Daddio and go retro, filling up some of these older shopping centers with good local businesses.