HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — A decaying shell of a former big-box store that represents shopping habits of America’s past could soon be home to habits of its future.
On Thursday, Hampton City Council could approve a zoning change at the site of the former K-Mart off Mercury Boulevard to allow for the property to redevelop into a nearly 100,000 square foot distribution warehouse.
The proposal by Gator Hampton Partners, LLLP out of Miami, Florida, is to use as much of the former retail store as they can to put to good use a property that “has been dormant and deteriorating,” according to planning documents filed with the city.
The planning commission unanimously recommended the project’s approval in October.
At that same meeting, R.J. Nutter, an attorney representing the developers told the commission he could not name the business that’s hoping to use the site, but explained what they would use it for.
“It is largely derivative in the change in the way America is going about buying products and having them delivered to their home,” Nutter said. “This is true not just third party deliverers, but the Walmarts and Targets of the world, who you can now order from any of their facilities … and they can deliver it to your home.”
Nutter said not only will this bring new jobs, but will give people ordering products piece of mind that there is someplace they can go if “there is a problem what is being delivered to you.”
The plan is to plant trees and shrubbery in order to better hide the facility from the road and surrounding neighborhoods.
Farther up Mercury Boulevard, a former hotel will fall before the end of the year.
Hampton’s Economic Development Authority purchased the former Quality Inn for $5.6 million in 2018 with a goal to redeveloping the site into something that wasn’t a “deterrent to investment,” according to a release.
“It is wonderful land right in the middle of our best retail district and business district and retail district,” said Robin McCormick, a city spokeswoman. “We were marketing it and the challenge is we were not getting the projects we desired and we think that is because the building was still standing … and people can’t really envision what the opportunities are there.”
Once the buildings come down another request for proposals will go out.