A project that has been slated to help replace the Tranlin project in northeast Chesterfield County is on a fast-track approval process.
Greg Allen, the county’s planning manager, said last week that site plan approval for the “Goliath project” could come in the next few weeks.
According to a site plan filed March 20 for Reynolds Real Estate Ventures LLC of Midlothian by Arizona-based developer Bob Gargaro, the 40.59-acre site allows for warehouses and offices. It is zoned I-3, or heavy industrial.
The plan calls for a 5,000-square-foot office and 431,200-square-foot warehouse with a future building expansion area of 174,720 square feet. The Timmons Group of Prince George is the engineer for the project, which is slated to have a one-story building with a maximum height of 47 feet.
The first phase of development calls for 108 parking spaces representing 70 employees. The second phase would add 55 additional spaces for 20 more employees.
A total project area of 6 acres is shown on a supplemental road plan that was filed April 10. The plan calls for an extension of Battery Brooke Parkway east of Interstate 95 west of the James River at the James River Industrial Center.
The Tranlin development – which would have turned agricultural waste into paper products on a 58-acre site on Willis Road – stalled and the company has only repaid $150,000 of a $5 million state grant.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership filed a lien on the property and was placed first in line late last year, according to Sandra Jones McNinch, an attorney with the partnership. The property was purchased for more than $3 million, so the lien secures a majority of Tranlin’s remaining obligation, she said.
The partnership’s board of directors voted to direct Attorney General Mark Herring to collect monies due the state during a Jan. 17 meeting in accord with a new provision in state law. The board also voted to approve a transfer of the land back to the state, McNinch said in an April 18 email. She added that the partnership is in the process of getting an appraisal on the land.
