Business

Facing rising prices, worker, & supply shortages, new Todos market to open before Thanksgiving

By Uriah Kiser
Carlos Castro, founder of Todos Supermarket [Photo: Uriah Kiser / Potomac Local News]

A well-known grocer aims to serve Woodbridge in a whole new way when its new neighborhood market opens next month.

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Warehouse could replace planned 170 homes, retail space

By Potomac Local News

A new planned distribution center faces opposition from history buffs in Stafford County.

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Planet Direct brings world of new jobs to region’s tech hub

By Uriah Kiser
Ryan Gutman, president of Planet Direct, surveys his new 110,000 square-foot corporate headquarters in Prince William County's Innovation Park. [Keith Walker/Prince William County Government]

Prince William County taxpayers helped pave the way to the update grand opening of a new warehouse and corporate headquarters for mailing and printing business that does $20 million a year in sales.

Officials on Wednesday cut the ribbon on the new 120,000 square foot headquarters for Planet Direct, a direct-mailing and printing company that specializes in working with non-profit companies and political campaigns.

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Newly-appointed George Mason University president to meet business community

By Uriah Kiser
Dr. Gregory Washington became the eighth president of George Mason University on July 1, 2020. [Photo: George Mason University]

Newly-appointed George Mason University President Dr. Gregory Washington will spend the evening with business owners in Woodbridge.

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Gaming pub seeks historians to celebrate building’s 111th birthday

By Rick Horner

Crossroads Tabletop Tavern, a Manassas-based game pub, has put out a call to local historians for information about the building that it's inhabited since 2018.

According to Crossroad's post to its Facebook page, the building that houses the tavern located at 9412 Main Street will celebrate its 111th birthday. The tavern wants to mark the occasion by finding out more about the building's history, but they've only been able to go back as far as 1984.

The building had been a bar up to that point, but Crossroads owner and founder John Hornberger says that there's proof that people used to live in the building.

"The building may have been apartments since it has the wiring and remnants of bathroom facilities that would have gone along with those kinds of things," says Hornberger.

Hornberger also talked about an artifact from back when the bar was known as Jake's. In a drop ceiling above the kitchen not visible to the public's view, signatures of the people who took part in a drinking contest are seen. If participants drank all six of the bar's original beers in one night, their names would be added to the ceiling.

Another piece of the puzzle in the history of the building comes from the world of pop music, along with other landmarks in old town Manassas the building was featured in the Steve Winwood music video for the song "Back in the High Life Again."

Hornberger also plans to officially name the building if he can't find out its official name. His choice would be the Baggins Building, a nod to the character of Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings books by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Crossroads plans to have a month-long celebration for the building, including a weeklong birthday celebration, an overnight gaming session for select invitees, and a month-long sale on games.

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Amazon to open delivery hub in Stafford as region’s tech boom continues

By Uriah Kiser

Amazon has expanded into Stafford County with a new 200,000 square foot facility at 25 Strategy Drive, near the county’s regional airport.

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4-story building to replace old structure that partially collapsed on Valentine’s Day 2015

By Uriah Kiser
Photo: Manassas City Economic Development

A new, four-story, mixed-use development project is coming to Downtown Manassas.

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Raising Cane’s restaurant aims to replace old Bar Louie on Liberia

By Uriah Kiser
Photo: Raising Cane's Facebook page

Raising Canes wants to bring its brand of fried chicken tenders to the Manassas area. 

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New mural gives unique character to brewery in Yorkshire

By Rick Horner

The Eavesdrop Brewery in Yorkshire has undergone a very colorful facelift, one that according to general manager Sam Madden is giving the brewery a more eye-catching identity.

Over the last year, the owners of the brewery have brought in an artist to paint this mural across the building which as well as the brewery includes local businesses such as the Cairo Cafe, Eugene's Sausage and Fries, and the Renegade Classics Motorcycle Shop.

The mural, painted by artist Nick Zimbra, shows flora and fauna against a colorful background such as the rabbit running on the Renegade Classic shop front or the flowers on the front of the Cairo Cafe. Zimbra, who has worked on the mural over the course of three to four months, has done similar projects in Richmond where he is currently working on a mural for the Capital One building.

Madden praised the mural to Potomac Local News, saying that it's not something you would normally see in many places in Prince William County.

"Personally, I grew up in Prince William County. I'm like, man, there's no public art in. Yeah, it's so boring. So, like, stiff, but it was cool to see it," says Madden.

Madden also touts the uniqueness of the stores located next to the brewery, which includes The Drop Bottle Shop, which stocks hard-to-find ales. 

"So that's stuff that you can't find in your Harris Teeter, Safeway, the other places, the small batches that they make," said Madden.

Many of the stores and restaurants in the brewery managed to survive through the pandemic even as they had to limit the number of customers by half. Many of the restaurants were able to survive through food delivery apps like Doordash as well as curbside service, said Madden.

Eavesdrop Brewery opened in 2017 and offers not just homebrewed beer but also local offerings of cheeses, meats, and honey that are produced at farms west of Manassas, located between Marshall and Front Royal.

Eavesdrop Brewery is located off of Route 28 at 7223 Centerville Road in Yorkshire.


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Stafford defers on agreement linked to 5G testbed project until August

By Rick Horner
State and local officials cut a ribbon to open Stafford County's 5G technology test bed.

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors has deferred an agreement with the Center for Innovative Technology until August.

The agreement would allow the county to contribute funds to pilot projects to the Virginia Smart Community Testbed. While federal, state, and private contributions are currently being made to the testbed Stafford County has no such agreement that would allow them to contribute to pilot projects.

Pilot projects that Stafford County has shown interest in investment include the development of flood sensing monitors that could trigger information though connected signs regarding road closures. This would be of particular interest to the county because of the flooding issues on Brooke Road that have constantly caused traffic issues and cut off residents in that area from being able to leave their homes.

Other potential projects of interest to Stafford have been the use of artificial intelligence to analyze data that has been collected for use in what county documents are calling "smart tourism." The concept of "smart tourism" would be put to use in better targeting of visitor spending, such use of A.I. has also been considered in helping with making business expansions more efficient though the usage of multiple data sources.

The county is in the process of drafting an agreement that could create such a mechanism for it to invest in testbed projects of interest. The contract would require information such as the specific task order for each pilot project that outlines the scope of the work as well as financial contributions from the county, CIT, private partners, federal, and state agencies.

The Virginia Smart Community Testbed, which is also using newly-developed 5G cell phone technology, is located at the Stafford County Courthouse and was officially opened in late May. The testbed has made agreements with many private companies such as Verizon as other federal and state agencies to develop smart technology.

The testbed is the first of its kind in the Commonwealth giving Stafford County a chance to become a hotbed of emerging technologies.


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