Prince William County’s reputation as a bedroom community is beginning to shift, or at least that is what elected officials and developers hope.
Located about 40 miles from downtown D.C., the county has historically been dominated by single-family homes where residents can commute to the city but also live on larger pieces of land. But a series of new developments moving forward is poised to change that dynamic and make the county more of a destination, panelists said Sept. 27 at Bisnow’s Exploring Prince William County event.
The pandemic-era trend of more people moving to the suburbs and working from home has led residents to spend more of their days in Prince William County and has helped position it for a more mixed-use future, developers and county officials said.
“Prince William County is shedding its previous identity as a quiet bedroom community to Washington, D.C., and emerging as an economic and social powerhouse in its own right in Northern Virginia,” Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chair Ann Wheeler said at the event, held at Sweeney Barn in Manassas.
With the expectation of more vibrant, mixed-use and multifaceted ecosystems coming down the pike, developers and public officials are trying to get ahead of hurdles to come, addressing issues like transportation, affordable housing and government infrastructure before it’s too late.
Several large-scale mixed-use developments are planned for the area, including Riverside Crossing, a development set to span 19.2 acres in north Woodbridge led by IDI Group Cos. and Boosalis Properties.
IDI Group Cos. Managing Director Carlos Cecchi said the hope is the development “will be a true live-work-play environment.”
“We’ve seen it closer in the D.C. area, and we feel like it’s now time to bring it to Woodbridge,” he said.
The development is planned to deliver three mixed-use buildings totaling 930 multifamily units, three commercial buildings and 145K SF of retail, including grocery, pharmacy, restaurants and daycare space, according to its website. Cecchi said the goal is to get shovels in the ground this year.
This kind of development is all relatively new for the county, Prince William County Department of Economic Development Executive Director Christina Winn said.
“When you look at Prince William County, we don’t really have a downtown, and so being able to create these places, these special places where people want to go have a coffee or walk to restaurants or entertainment, that’s exciting to me,” Winn said. “And we’re going to see that continue to grow and prosper.”
But the success of these mixed-use developments will depend on creating self-sustaining ecosystems within the county, panelists said, and they need companies to locate there to provide a workforce and economic growth.
“When you look at diversification, that is really the key to economic resiliency within the county,” Winn said, adding that the county is aiming to recruit life sciences, government contracting and manufacturing companies, and it is working to prop up small businesses.
The county has begun to attract more data centers over the past few years as they spill over from Loudoun County. The board of supervisors in November approved a controversial plan for a 2,100-acre development district that could lead the way for it to become one of the world’s major data center hubs.
