The times when residents from eastern Henrico County had to drive out of the area to shop at a Circuit City or eat at Red Lobster are nearly over.

The Shops at White Oak Village -- the first major shopping center in that area -- opens in about five months.

Residents near the center now travel to Mechanicsville in Hanover County or to Virginia Center Commons in northern Henrico to shop at Target and other big-box retailers.

And the closest Red Lobster is about 14 miles away in western Henrico.

Randall R. Silber, deputy county manager for community development in Henrico, said White Oak was built to meet the demand from area residents.

Silber said White Oak is the beginning of retail shopping for that part of Henrico. "You'll see some spinoff."

White Oak is not considered a mall because several of its largest tenants are in individual buildings. But it is as large as one.

Sitting on 136 acres that once was the site for Viasystems Technology Corp., the $158 million center spreads along a wide swath of Laburnum Avenue.

Exiting Interstate 64 onto Laburnum Avenue, the construction site takes up your line of vision.

The rear of the shopping center will be lined with stores including Target, Lowe's, Ukrop's and PetSmart.

J.C. Penney, which had been scheduled to open this fall, will open next year instead. The center will be 90 percent leased when it opens, the developers say.

In the middle will be two pedestrian-friendly areas anchored by smaller retail shops such as Dress Barn, Freeman's Men Shop, Kay Jewelers, Downtown Locker Room, Great Clips and Mattress Warehouse.

A row of restaurants, including a Red Lobster, Cracker Barrel and T.G.I. Friday's, will fringe the edges of the shopping center along Laburnum Avenue.

A 140-room Hyatt Place hotel will sit on the northern corner of the property near I-64.

In all, the center will have more than 900,000 square feet -- about the size of Virginia Center Commons, which has 924,000 square feet. Short Pump Town Center has 1.2 million square feet.

Forest City Enterprises Inc., a Cleveland-based company, and Pruitt Associates of Henrico are developing White Oak and want to repeat the success of Short Pump, which they also developed.

To assist in building the center, Henrico created a Community Development Authority to pay for road improvements, sewer lines and other infrastructure improvements. The authority sold about $23 million in bonds for the improvements.

The bonds will be paid back in 10 years by using the sales tax revenue generated at the center, said John Vithoulkas, county director of finance.

After 10 years, the tax revenue goes into county coffers, he said.

The county worked a similar deal for Short Pump.

White Oak will not only give residents a place to shop, but it also will change the surrounding retail landscape, county officials and developers said.

A Best Buy is under construction across Laburnum Avenue from White Oak and other shopping centers are in the works for the area.

"You'll see a growth spurt over the next 15 years," said Brian Glass, senior vice president for retail brokerage at Grubb & Ellis/Harrison & Bates.

The growth has a lot do with land. Eastern Henrico has the room to expand while western Henrico is starting to run out of land, Glass said.

White Oak will be the largest single retail development in eastern Henrico, said Glass.

Ralph "Bill" Axselle Jr., a lawyer and lobbyist who has worked with developers Forest City and Pruitt Associates, said the new retail in the area is a reflection of the growth expected to come to that side of the county.

The developers were attracted to the area because it is very underserved by stores and restaurants, he said.

"In the long term, growth is going to eastern Henrico," Axselle said. He said he's been doing zoning work for 30 years and this is the first project where the primary inquiry by residents was: What's taken so long?
Contact Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or LLLovio@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Linda Dunham at (804) 775-8126 or ldunham@timesdispatch.com.