The Silver Companies Botched My Strip Mall.

Most residents of Fredericksburg, Virginia probably couldn't tell you who the mayor is, because residents of Fredericksburg, Virginia know who really runs this town: The Silver Companies.

Silver owns just about everything in this town... every major area of commercial development is touched by the real estate titan in one way or another.  It's pretty much common knowledge here in Da Burg.

From Cosner's Corner to Central Park to Celebrate Virginia, Silver Companies have built an empire of successful shopping centers in Fredericksburg, with all the big box stores and chain restaurants anyone can want.  And don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-big box store, nor am I one of those snobs against chain restaurants... I'm fine with 'em.  I'm a simple guy, I like simple shit.  And there's nothing more simple than picking up some crap at Target and having lunch at Ruby Tuesday.  I don't mind that at all.  Kohl's has some good deals.  Bonefish Grill has some silly seafood.  Wegman's is a phenomenal shopping experience.

But Silver Companies utterly botched the shopping centers (Update: as of August 21, 2010, Silver's gone so far as to remove references to the failed shopping center from their website) in my neck of the woods.  I live in a pretty big subdivision along Route 17, and Route 17 connects the western portion of Northern Virginia with the I-95 corridor.  It sees considerable traffic, and there's a sizable chunk of people with disposable income living here that would appreciate not having to drive to Central Park, downtown Fredericksburg, or Massaponax to shop or dine.  There's a huge Geico complex in my neighborhood that would probably appreciate it as well.

We waited for years, bided our time.  Strip malls popped up all around the city, and they were all successful.  Rumors and speculation swirled that Silver was going to put something in our neighborhood.

Then, in 2007, they finally started clearing the land... something was coming.  A big strip mall right by the Geico building.  Awesome.

It was a Giant supermarket.  Kinda disappointing, but that's okay.  We needed options.  Other smaller businesses started to fill in the adjacent shops.  A sampling:

• A tanning salon.... eh. (Current status: Out of business.)
• A local pizza chain, Bridges... maybe I'll stop by. (Or maybe I won't.  Current status: Closed indefinitely for "renovations." Um, it was brand new.)
• A Daily Grind... ok, but Starbucks would be better. (Current status: Out of business.)
• A Nestle Tollhouse Cafe... seriously, Starbucks. (Current status: Out of business.)
• A Tropical Smoothie Cafe... okay. (Current status: Out of business.)
• A Taste of China restaurant... meh. (Current status:  Out of business.)
• A Party Depot... WTF.  (Current status: Out of business.)
• A Powerhouse Gym... I was a member for a year. (Current status: Franchise sold. Now a "Flex Appeal" Gym.)
• A Five Guys... good.  (Current status:  Open & thriving.  A well-known brand with a good reputation.)

I think you get the idea.  Zero buzz.  Zero interest.  Nobody cared.  It definitely wasn't good enough to stop going to the other, more popular venues with stores and restaurants that people recognized.  And it showed in the fortunes of the shitty low-rent stores.  In only a year or two, most of the new businesses have shuttered.

And it doesn't appear that anybody's swooping in to fill in the spaces... because nobody wants to go to shitty businesses that nobody's ever heard of.  In fact, the Silver Companies had big plans for a Sonic Drive-In, stand-alone Starbucks, Ruby Tuesday, and a Pizza Hut/Wing Street in this shopping center.  There was even mention on Silver's website of the Sonic opening in Summer 2009.  Well, it's Spring 2010 and not only have they not broken ground, they've actually pulled any references to Sonic off the website.

It's a failure of epic proportions.  I would say that the crash of the real estate market and the recession had everything to do with it, but to do so would ignore the successes of other Silver Company properties only a few miles away.  Most other parts of Fredericksburg are positively booming, recession be damned.  Anyone that's ever hit Central Park or Massaponax on the weekend knows that.

Except for our shitty little strip mall.  Every town has one... the crappy shopping center that nobody ever wants to go to because the stores stink and the place looks run down.  I always thought that those kinds of places became that way due to neglect over long periods of time.  Now I know that even brand new shopping centers can be simply mismanaged into certain failure.  And Silver Companies fucked this one up, big time.

Thanks for dragging down my property value, schmucks.  Nobody wants to live near the shitty shopping center.

One more pic of the party.