A new 1,400-space parking garage will be built between Wegmans and Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.
The $37 million, seven-floor garage in Woodbridge will help alleviate overcrowding at commuter lots at Route 234 near Dumfries. It also comes after Potomac Mills mall in 2011 reduced the number of commuter parking spaces it allowed residents to use by 75 percent, allowing for more parking at what would be new restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory, Bobby’s Burger Palace, and Matchbox.
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors chose the site behind Wegmans at Potomac Town Center due to its proximity to an entrance to Interstate 95, and a newly planned $50 million entrance to the E-ZPass toll lanes from Opitz Boulevard, making it easy for drivers that use the parking garage, and OmniRide buses that will serve the garage to enter the express lanes.
The garage was originally planned as part of a new Potomac Nationals baseball stadium that was also to be built on the site. However, the baseball team couldn’t reach a deal with county leaders in 2017 and then opted to move the team to Fredericksburg.
After the team decided to move, Prince William County studied the site, as well as other sites surrounding area, examining soil quality, as well as looking at sites’ accessibility to the region’s transit network, in hopes to choose the best location for the new garage. Sites behind the Potomac Festival shopping center, home to an Outback restaurant, as well as a piece of property on Dale Boulevard next to I-95 that now houses an At Home store (formerly K-mart store) were also considered.
Construction on the new parking garage is expected to begin in Spring 2021 and is expected to be completed two years later.
The Prince William County Department of Transportation has posted information and a link to a video of what the new garage will look like on its website. You’ll need to scroll down to “Neabsco/Potomac Commuter Parking Garage” to see it.
