THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 28, 1995 TAG: 9508260304
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Ted Evanoff
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Cross the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel at Norfolk, head northwest on Interstate 64 and you enter a remarkable corridor.
Along the way are Hampton, Jamestown, Yorktown, Williamsburg and then, halfway between the tunnel and Richmond, the leafy borders of James City County give way to the gentle countryside of York County.
Illustrious names, yes, but more than American history stands out here. This is Hampton Roads' retirement corridor.
Of all the communities in the region, those with the largest proportion of households receiving retirement income are found along I-64 on the Peninsula. It's a proportion that seems bound to grow as the nation ages.
Of course, retirees live in larger numbers on the southside, particularly in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, the state's largest cities, but the Peninsula corridor still has the edge.
While slightly less than one of every five southside households gets some form of retirement pay, according to the '90 U.S. Census, retirement income enters almost one of every four households in the corridor.
York County has Tidewater's largest proportion of retirement households, 22.3 percent, a rate nearly matched by James City County, which happens to claim the highest retirement income on average in Tidewater - $17,139 per household in '90.
Little wonder then that one of the biggest residential real estate ventures in Virginia is taking shape at Toano near the York-James City line.
Dominion Land Management Co., in conjunction with Chesapeake Corp., plans to develop Stonehouse, a community of 800 houses ranging in price from $160,000 to $300,000.
``We think anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of the buyers will be retirees coming from Northern Virginia and the (Washington-to-Boston) Northeast Corridor,'' Dominion Land president Donald Priest said.
Fields and forests surround Toano. The countryside rolls on all the way to Richmond, about 45 minutes up the interstate. It's a good half hour the other way to where the jobs and population concentrates in Hampton and Newport News.
Although Toano may seem like a far flung speck, the last place that might appeal to an affluent retiree from the North, Priest takes a different view.
Hampton Roads, at least the population in the metropolitan area, has begun stretching out.
``We're pretty familiar with commuting patterns,'' Priest said. ``We felt with the existing commuting patterns, this project did not represent a highly unusual offering.''
Working parents in Hampton Roads, especially those in their 30s and 40s, seem not to mind driving longer distances to the office. In Virginia Beach, for example, almost a third of the commuters drive 30 or more each day to work.
That makes Stonehouse seemingly within reach of long-distance commuters from Richmond and the Peninsula. What's more, it can attract new employees of the industrial base emerging nearby.
James City County put up an industrial building in the Stonehouse Commerce Park near Toano to attract a business. Solarex Corp. plans to make solar panels across the street. Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics America Inc. also has scouted the area.
Stonehouse, 875 acres of countryside now, seems destined to become part of the new suburbia.
The project will be attractive to retirees who like the Williamsburg region but don't have choices in that price range,'' Priest said.
Many in the Northeast Corridor, those 55 and up, seem less interested in setting up a retirement home in distant Florida, and more apt to settle in southeastern Virginia.
That's been the experience in enclaves on the Peninsula similar to Stonehouse, including Kings Mill and Governor's Land, another Dominion project.
``Historically, retirees have moved further south, but if you see what's happening in the Williamsburg area today, you see that people are a good deal more diverse in choosing where to locate their retirement home,'' Priest said.
``Williamsburg seems to be enjoying substantial growth in retirement housing from people who want to move away from the Northeast Corridor but don't want to be too far away from the things they enjoy in the North,'' he said.
``Our project turns out to be in a location that happens to be a good compromise between the sun and fun and the things in the Northeast that are still important to them.'' by CNB