Riverside Station to transform neighborhood at Woodbridge VRE

Two developers will breathe new life into Woodbridge with a new development containing nearly 1,000 new homes and retail shops.

The mixed-use Riverside Station will sit on 19 acres on Route 1, across from the Woodbridge VRE station. When complete, a series of condo buildings, street-level shops, a small park, and landscaped areas will replace Station Plaza, home to B-Thrifty and Astoria Pizza, and the old Cowles Ford dealership, which has sat empty for 30 years.

IDI, the developer that constructed Rivergate Apartments less than a mile away on the Occoquan River, partnered with Boosalis Properties, owner of Station Plaza, to build the new development. In phases, as many as 970 homes and 130,000-square-feet retail space will be built on the site.

Boosalis worked with many of the merchants at Station Plaza to help them relocate into the new development when it’s complete, said Sherman Patrick of Compton and Duling, P.C. represented the developers,

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors unanimously approved a land rezoning, clearing the way for the project on September 13, 2022. The project fits within a small area plan approved in 2019, guiding new urban development for the area in the county’s eastern portion.

“Woodbridge is one of the oldest areas in the county, and revitalization is the only thing you can do here,” said Woodbridge District Supervisor Margaret Franklin, who pushed for the development.

Riverside Station will be a transit-friendly development near VRE, Amtrak, OmniRide buses, and 1 mile from Interstate 95.

The developers plan to build a $4 million pedestrian bridge over Route 1 to connect the neighborhood with the train station. The bridge will cross Route 1, somewhere between Occoquan Road and Route 123. The Virginia Department of Transportation aims to build a new flyover at Routes 1 and 123, and the design of that project is holding up the location of the pedestrian bridge.

“People will gain the benefit of being able to cross Route 1 safely,” Patrick told the Board of County Supervisors.

VDOT abandoned older plans for a flyover on Route 1 and 123, which required exit ramps at Routes 1 and 123. The right-of-way the state purchased for the ramps will now be developed into a small park.

Developers will reserve 78 homes for affordable housing, said Patrick. A new elementary school will be built just south of the latest development on Route 1, next to Fred Lynn Middle School to help alleviate crowding at Belmont Elementary and other schools in the area.

Developers have been talking about revitalizing this plot of land since the late 1980s when Cowles Ford moved to an abandoned Hechinger’s store on Minneville Road near Prince William Parkway in Woodbridge.

More than 10 years ago, former Woodbridge District Supervisor Frank Principi held a design charrette, inviting residents to provide input on how to revitalize this area of Woodbridge. Information from those meetings was used to develop the small area plan.

Developers plan to adhere to the guidelines and develop Horner Road, which runs parallel to Route 1, as the community’s central boulevard. Eventually, Horner Road will stretch to the Occoquan River after crews demolish the Gordon Plaza shopping center on Route 123.

“I attended the charette, and it’s great to see, in all of that time, giving your educated opinion about development, and then seeing it come to fruition,” said Lydia Silverstrand, a Woodbridge Potomac Communities Civic Association member.

The Riverside Station development follows the rezoning for Jefferson Square, just south of Riverside Station on Route 1, where developers will build 240 new apartments. The new homes will replace a dilapidated shopping center that dates back more than 60 years.