Manassas-Based Firm to Promote Retail in City Center

A new company will try its hand at leasing out the empty retail spaces in City Center that line Manassas Park's main strip, Manassas Drive, which is also its biggest hope for landing the .

True North, the White Plains, NY-based company that has own City Center since March, has hired real estate brokerge firm Webber-Rector to manage the retail aspect of the commerical-residental hybrid property, Manassas Park Planning and Zoning Director Vanessa Watson said this week. 

"It has been relayed to us, city staff, that it is their intention to market that commerical property aggressively," Watson said during Monday's planning commission meeting. "They understand the situation at hand and they want to focus on retail spaces."

Webber-Rector is headquartered on Battle Street in Manassas. The firm serves clients in Northern Virginia, particularly, Prince William, Stafford, Fauquier and Culpeper counties as well as Manassas city and Manassas Park, according to its website. 

The Lane Company is employed by True North to manage the residental aspect of the two-building city center.

The commerical aspect of City Center has sat unused since it was built more than five years ago. True North bought it in —less than half the amount it cost to build the mixed-use development five years ago.

The notes, or loans, on the two-building development on Manassas Drive were in default when Bank of America, PNC Bank and Sovereign Bank—the holders of the notes—sold them to TNHYIT REIV Hotel LLC on Sept. 14, 2011, according to a corrected trustees deed filed on April 5.

Clark Realty Capital, the original owner and builder of the property, defaulted on the loans, pushing City Center into foreclosure and onto the public auction block in Prince William County.

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