THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 13, 1994 TAG: 9407130363
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
Home Quarters Inc., the Virginia Beach-based home improvement store chain, signed a 20-year lease Tuesday for a new store at the Janaf Shopping Center.
Construction will begin in a few weeks, HQ president Frank Doczi said. The store should open early next spring.
The 151,415-square-foot Janaf site will replace HQ's Wards Corner location in Norfolk. The building will be 117,516 square feet; the remaining space will be used for a garden and greenhouse area.
``This allows us to show our total commitment to the area, to bring the latest in HQ,'' Doczi said. The new store will resemble the company's other new stores opened last September except for a drive-through lumber loading space, he said.
Doczi expressed regret at the impending closure of HQ's Wards Corner store. But the age and size of the building restricted the company's further investment there.
``There is virtually no growth in that area to justify the capital investment,'' he said.
Wards Corner's loss, however, translates into Janaf's gain.
``It'll will make (Janaf) one of the largest shopping centers in Southeastern Virginia, if not the state,'' said Tred Spratley, executive vice president at Richmond-based Sigma Commercial Realty, who handles the leasing for Janaf. The deal was negotiated within the past 16 months, he said.
The new stand-alone HQ store will face the rest of the shopping center in the space between Montgomery Ward and Virginia Beach Boulevard.
Armada/Hoffler Enterprises, Inc., the construction company that built two other stores for the company, has been hired to build HQ's Janaf store. by CNB