Most Wednesday and Saturday mornings, you can find Peter and Sharon Francisco (left) comfortably sitting in a gazebo on the edge of a parking lot bustling with in central Henrico County.
The Franciscos own Lakeside Towne Center, a four-acre complex with 12 stores and a sparkling new, spacious parking area on Lakeside Avenue, one of the many communities in Henrico with a small-town feel. With the county’s help, the business owners managed to transform an aging lot into Lakeside Farmers’ Market. They received a $5,000 grant from Henrico County’s Enterprise Zone Program to pave their lot, and became part of a string of satisfied business owners who are part of a wave of economic activity that upgrades Henrico’s retail, corporate, and industrial areas.
"We were the first to take advantage of the parking lot grant,” Peter Francisco proudly said. This was just one of several county and state Enterprise Zone grants that helped the Franciscos, formerly part of the family-owned Lakeside Appliance, reach their dream of planting a farmers’ market on their very own street in the heart of Henrico. The market opened in May.
"We utilized both the state and county enterprise zone grants,” Francisco said. The work included adding 5,000 square feet of retail space at Lakeside Towne Center. “This whole thing is for economic development, and to get additional business into the shops.”
On that morning in June, mothers and grandmothers walked by pushing babies in strollers; local residents strolled over from their homes and apartments; and drive-by shoppers turned into the parking lot to check out the festive market. A small group of vendors sold fresh cucumbers, squash, radishes, beets, and a cornucopia of other homegrown produce and flowers.
The Lakeside area is starting to bloom with new shops and commercial appeal, and many observers credit the county’s innovative Enterprise Zone incentives with helping plant those seeds of growth. At a spring workshop held at the Belmont Recreation Center by the Henrico County Department of Community Revitalization, about 20 small-business owners and commercial real estate developers sounded excited about how far the program has come and its potential for reenergizing a cross section of Henrico.
“I’m a Lakeside resident about ready to open a business on Lakeside Avenue, and so I’m obviously interested in the benefits of the Enterprise Zone,” said Mary Neathawk, a business owner preparing to open a custom art boutique and gallery.
After Henrico County added more incentives in 2008, Neathawk said, “To me there are so many opportunities, and some of the newer incentives are much more small-business oriented.”
These new incentives, approved by the Henrico County Board of Supervisors in 2008 and approved by the State of Virginia, include grants to improve building façades, pave parking lots or gravel areas, improve landscaping, and demolish old buildings.
