The Manassas government will expand the number of acres it owns by purchasing the Manassas Shopping Center.
The Economic Development Authority of the City of Manassas (EDA) will buy a shopping center, a mainstay at 9018 Mathis Avenue, to help spur the long-planned redevelopment and revitalization of the Mathis Avenue corridor.
The purchase comes after the city announced the purchase of the former 20-acre Marsteller Middle School property at 8730 Sudley Road for $10 million, with plans to transform it into the city’s 21st public park.
Officials said the envisioned park on Sudley Road, near UVA Prince William Medical Center, will provide green space and house a future community center, athletic fields, open land, and even a fire station.
Meanwhile, Manassas Shopping Center, built in 1959 on Mathis Avenue, includes over 100,000 square feet of building space and sits on 13.5 acres. The $16 million purchase price is funded by a one-time American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal coronavirus bailout and capital reserve funds and is included in the FY2025 budget that begins on July 1, 2024. According to a press release, the proposed sale does not affect the city’s tax rate.
In the short term, the city said all existing leases in the shopping center will be honored. Existing tenants will be supported but eventually relocated. New leases to existing or prospective tenants may be granted on a short-term basis. The shopping center now generates $1 million annually from lease revenues, which will be retained for public use. Sales, meals, property, and business taxes will still be paid, and the EDA will continue to pay real estate taxes and manage the property.
No stranger to purchasing shopping centers, the city bought the Grant Avenue Shopping Center for $3.2 million in 2016. Once home to a Safeway grocery store, it eventually demolished it and built a police station.
Last year, the city sent $5.5 million to buy the Old Town Inn in Downtown Manassas. It demolished the mid-century motor in, and plans to sell the property to a developer with hopes it w will build a hotel on the site.
Over the past decade, the city has invested $20 million in acquiring new properties. Simultaneously, the city has sold surplus properties to private developers to bolster tax revenue. Recent sales include parcels to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for a new data center at the city’s airport for $30 million and to Stanley Martin Homes for $12 million for residential development.
This week, city officials gathered behind the city’s old Holmes Heights section, behind the city’s museum, to break ground for 247 new homes along Grant Avenue in a neighborhood soon to be called Ashberry.
A press release states that long-term redevelopment plans for the Manassas Shopping Center may include retail and office space and could provide opportunities for the City to meet its attainable housing goals. A city plan also calls for a mixed-use development along Mathis Avenue that would reshape the area into a city-like neighborhood with mid-rise residential buildings.
The city is encouraging residents to share their ideas for the property, including interim adaptive uses, and expects the public conversation to be ongoing over the next several years.
The Virginia General Assembly charters the EDA and has broad powers defined in the Code of Virginia to promote economic development in the City. Those powers include the acquisition, disposition, and management of property for a public purpose. The Manassas City Council appoints its directors.
The idea of redeveloping the Mathis Avenue corridor has a long history. “Citizen committees were contributing to the Mathis Avenue Sector Plan in the early 2000s,” Mayor Michelle Davis-Younger states in a press release. “During Community Conversations for the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, residents told us they would like to see a more walkable neighborhood, more affordable housing options, and more green space on Mathis Avenue. This purchase allows us to advance the long-term investment and vision of the residents and Council.”
When Interim City Manager Douglass Keen presented his proposed FY2025 budget to the city council late last month, homeowners in Manassas were already facing a $266 increase in their property tax bills. Last week, the city council topped it by choosing to advertise a $1.28 per $100 Real Estate tax rate on homes, two cents more than what Keen had proposed.
A city government spokeswoman said council members will learn just how much the advertised rate would increase the average tax bill during a meeting tonight, Wednesday, March 13, 2024.
The city council must adopt a tax rate to fund its annual budget before June. The advertised rate may be lowered but cannot exceed $1.28 per $100 taxable value.
