 Terry Hazelton soaks in the atmosphere at the new White Hawk Music Cafe on Saturday at the Chamber of Commerce’s official ribbon cutting for the cafe and the neighboring Commonwealth Gallery Florist at the new Town & Country Shops on Route 522 in the Courthouse area. More stores are soon to move in. Goochland’s business boom Wide variety of shops and stores are popping up across county
Retail business is booming in Goochland County from the Henrico line to the Courthouse village.
Saturday brought the grand opening for the White Hawk Music Cafe and the expanded and relocated Commonwealth Gallery Florist. Both are located in the new Town & Country Shops, formerly the Town & Country Market, on Sandy Hook Road.
Glenn Dankos owns the property and has spent months developing retail space there.
“We’ve already doubled our walk-in business,” said Commonwealth Gallery owner Tonya Northcutt. Her business partner, Tammy Roberts, said business took off after a soft opening during Valentine’s Day week.
Their shop is a little larger, but much better presented, according to Northcutt.
Just around the corner is the White Hawk Music Cafe, owned and operated by Terry Hazelton.
The place was packed as special coffees and sandwiches sold at a brisk pace.
Hazleton is hoping to attract all sorts of customers, but he “also wants to give local musicians a place to find one another.”
The White Hawk also has private music rooms in the back where “guitar, piano, violin, mandolin, fiddle and banjo lessons will be given,” said Hazelton. One of his instructors is Shirley Campbell, who has taught for 30 years and is a certified instructor.
Among the fans listening to country group Southwind were Bea and David Nugent. Bea was attracted to the cafe because “music will draw you. Goochland needs something like this.”
Nora Ramsdell, a local residential-commercial interior designer, has been in Goochland three years and says, “I’ve been longing for a place like this.”
Fox Pizza, a nail salon, hair salon and a physical therapy clinic are all preparing for openings in the next couple months, he said. Dankos also has built small office suites in the interior of the renovated building.
Dankos said he’s pleased with the lease rate on this major commercial property, but points out that there is some retail and office space left. He said that the Route 522/Fairground Road intersection is becoming the retail hub for Goochland Courthouse.
“The building exterior and interior have been greatly modernized and present a pleasing architectural theme in keeping with the nearby Food Lion retail center,” according to Dankos.
Yet another business, A Needle Runs Through It, will open at Maidens Loop near the Route 522 bridge on March 17. Valerie Schlake is expanding her machine quilting services with remodeled retail space there.
Schlake has been doing finish quilting since 1999 in two different home locations. She sees her new Maidens shop as “easily accessible to all my area quilting customers.”
At the eastern end of the county on Broad Street, a new Wawa will open Thursday, March 8.
Area Manager Mike Carter is excited.
The location will be the 52nd Wawa in the state, Carter said. The company is a convenience store/fueling station specializing in fresh hoagies and other sandwiches.
The store will be located just inside the Goochland line, on the westward side of Broad Street Road at Route 288.
Valerie Waite has been selected as the new store manager. She has 20 years of management experience with the company.
“We’re excited to open our first store in Goochland County,” she said. “We invite our neighbors to stop in for free coffee and try our other specials like the cheesesteak sandwich.”
Joseph Lacy, Chairman of the Goochland Board of Supervisors, was enthusiastic over the spurt of new business activity.
“These retailers help bring Goochland into the twenty-first century,” he said. “More and more, Goochlanders can find the things they want without leaving the county.”
He also points out that, “It helps the county, too, because more of the sales tax paid here stays here to help finance the county budget.”
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