At Tuesday night's Board of County Supervisors meeting, the developer of the Promenade at Virginia Gateway offered a preview of several businesses that could be coming to the new upscale lifestyle center located in Gainesville.
While he could not disclose the names of the specific companies, Peterson Companies vice president Paul Weinschenk said they were in active negotiations with several restaurants and women's fashion retailers.
"From a leasing perspective, there has been a lot of interest in what we are doing there," Weinschenk said.
"We have, at this point, several signed letters of intent with full-service sit down restaurants who are now in lease negotiations with us."
One such restaurant he mentioned was an upscale Italian concept that is coming to the United States.
"Their build-out is phenomenal; it's white tablecloth and very upscale," he said.
Another restaurant with several locations in the Midwest, he said, has signed a letter of intent for the main location on the main plaza.
"It's a unique concept that is affiliated with a winery; that restaurant serves the wine that the winery produces and actually has a portion of the restaurant building itself, which sells for off-premises consumption their wines," he said.
Weinschenk also announced that the Promenade will also include a restaurant that they feature in several of their other lifestyles centers in Downtown Silver Spring, the Washiontonian, and the National Harbor.
"These guys are more of a quick-serve restaurant; their build-out is unique, idiosyncratic, fun and sexy," he said. "It's a totally different way of having the sort of food product that these guys offer."
From the retail perspective, Peterson Companies is working to sign three different upscale women's apparel retailers
"We're rounding out the selection that we were able to bring to Gainesville over the past couple of years with the addition of JoS. A. Bank up at Atlas Walk and the addition of Chico's," he said.
Since the Supervisors did not approve a plan to allow up to three drive-thru restaurants at the site, it is unclear if Starbucks, which already has a location at Atlas Walk, would still consider opening a new location at the Promenade if they could not offer a drive-thru component.
"Starbucks, whom we are talking to, said 'If you'd like us to be here, we need the ability to do something different' and that difference is being able to offer a drive-thru service to their clientele," he said.
Weinschenk commented that if the space allocated for office buildings in Fairfax Corner was removed, the scale of the Promenade at Virginia Gateway would be comparable.
"Folks looking for that great pedestrian-oriented experience, with a great mix of retail and a great mix of restaurants, are going to get that with this site," he said.
Peterson Companies also confirmed the projected opening of the Regal Cinemas for early May of 2013.
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