DATE: Monday, August 25, 1997               TAG: 9708230377

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   81 lines

ASIANS FIND MUCH TO LIKE IN CHESAPEAKE

Where can you go to take home an order of lumpia and pancit , buy vegetables like upo and ampalaya and rent a movie in Tagalog?

One might try D&V Oriental, which specializes in one-stop shopping - Filipino style.

The all-in-one market on Kempsville Road has carved out a niche as a home-style Filipino restaurant, Asian grocery and video rental store, said Mitch Paet , whose family owns the business.

The small market has thrived in its location at Orchard Square Shopping Center. So have four other businesses owned by Asian-Americans.

Chesapeake - with an Asian population of only 1.2 percent - might seem an unlikely hub of Asian business. Yet the Orchard Square Shopping Center is now home not only to Paet's Filipino grocery, but to a Christopher Truong's Glamour Nails salon, Drs. Craig and Charito Estrada's dental office, Song's Tailoring shop and Freda Hou's Golden Sun Chinese restaurant.

Why Orchard Square?

Business owners list three familiar reasons for their attraction: location, location, location.

When the Paet family was looking for a place to locate their Filipino grocery, they could have stayed in Virginia Beach, Paet said. After all, that's where they live. It's also where most other Filipinos in Hampton Roads live.

More Asian-Americans live in Virginia Beach, in fact, than all other Hampton Roads cities combined, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More than 17,000 of Virginia Beach's residents - or 4.3 percent - are Asian-American, according to the 1990 census. Just under 1,900 Asian-Americans lived in Chesapeake at that time.

But the Paets found that Virginia Beach rents were out of their reach, Paet said. And with Virginia Beach's established Asian population came well-established businesses.

Just across the city line in fast-growing Chesapeake, however, the Paets found cheaper retail space and fewer competitors.

``People tell us we were the first, so it's good to have a foothold here,'' Paet said. ``And it works out nicely, because Chesapeake's got the growing population.''

Other businesses have followed their lead.

For seven years, D&V Oriental was the only Asian market in the Greenbrier area. Last year, Alex and Marissa Solomon opened Bayanihan Oriental Mart, Inc., just a couple miles down the road on Volvo Parkway.

Both market are thriving, although they are located near heavy competition. D&V Oriental share a shopping center with a Farm Fresh as well as a Moovies franchise. Bayanihan is across the street from Hollywood Video and Blockbuster Video stores, as well as a Harris Teeter supermarket.

Filipino markets offer specialty items not found in larger stores, however, said Mark Pendleton, vice president of commercial properties at Breeden Realty Co., which manages Orchard Square. Locating Asian markets and video stores next to national retailers actually helps the smaller stores, Pendleton said. Shoppers can take care of the bulk of their needs at supermarket, then go to a smaller grocery for ethnic foods.

Commercial real estate agents also encourage prospective tenants to branch into new areas, said Pendleton, whose company also leases space at Parkway Shopping Center in Virginia Beach, home to several Asian-owned businesses.

``We don't want to put two nail salons in the same center, for example,'' Pendleton said. ``The new businesses are moving into the newer centers in Chesapeake.''

Chesapeake's central location and access to highways makes it easy to get to, Pendleton said. Some of the Asian-American businesses at Orchard Square have found their customers are willing to travel.

Most of the Filipino patients at Family Dentistry live in Virginia Beach, said Dr. Craig Estrada , in practice with his wife, Dr. Charito Mangaya Estrada . Filipinos account for a majority of their patients.

``You can see there's no land to build in Virginia Beach,'' Craig Estrada said. ``We were looking for a place that needed a dentist.''

Celeste Truong, who runs Glamour Nails with her husband Christopher, predicts Western Branch and Suffolk will eventually benefit from business migration - Asian-American or otherwise.

And a growing Asian business community could persuade more Asian-Americans to make Chesapeake their home, said Freda Hou , who owns the Golden Sun Chinese restaurant at Orchard Square.

``At first, I thought, `Chesapeake, wow, that place is the country,' '' Hou said. ``Chesapeake? This name was not really exciting. Now I have to take that back. We (family members) have been talking to quite a few people about coming to this area.''

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