Springline at District 60: How Chesterfield Bought a Shopping Center and Rebuilt It

Most local governments wait for a developer. In 2021 Chesterfield County bought the shopping center itself.

Spring Rock Green had opened in 1976 at the corner of Midlothian Turnpike and Chippenham Parkway, and by the end it was mostly empty — a few tenants including 5.11 Tactical and Dollar Tree on 42 acres at one of the busiest intersections in the county, with 48,000 vehicles a day on Route 60 and 78,000 on Route 150. The Economic Development Authority paid $16 million for it in September 2021 on parcels assessed at $10.2 million, cleared the remaining leases, and then applied to rezone its own property.

On April 27, 2022 the Board approved the EDA's request to rezone 41.9 acres for up to 1,100 multifamily units, 125 townhouses or condominiums, office and retail space, a hotel, a parking deck, and a sports and entertainment facility. The county framed it from the first announcement as the revitalization of the eastern Route 60 gateway.

"District 60" is the brand for the wider corridor — Springline, Stonebridge and The Boulders office park together — named for Route 60 and intended, in the master planner's phrase, to make the area "a destination to drive to, not through." Springline is the 42 acres at its center.

Four years on, this is no longer a rendering.

The office building is finished and fully leased. Five stories, 150,000 square feet, Class A, with a rooftop deck and more than 600 people working in it daily. Its tenants say something about the strategy: Timmons Group moved its corporate headquarters there, bringing roughly 400 employees and a $50 million investment; Chesterfield County Public Schools moved its administration in; and Chesterfield Economic Development moved its own offices into the project it assembled. The schools' move freed 41,000 square feet at CTC@Hull for career and technical instruction — space for about 600 more students that the county's deputy administrator said would have cost roughly $40 million to build new.

The James at Springline is open — 298 apartments over 26,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space, with a 417-space resident deck, built for $85–88 million.

The parking garage is running, 790 of an eventual 1,340 spaces, and the road connection through to The Boulders is open.

Under construction now: NorthBend, a $80 million building with 245 more units and 15,000 square feet of retail; the county's Falling Creek Police Precinct, a $12.9 million, 17,000-square-foot station opening in early 2027 — the police department's first purpose-built station, funded by the 2022 bond referendum; and the Hilton Richmond The Mondelle, which has a post of its own.

Still ahead: a specialty grocer of 12,000–25,000 square feet, breaking ground in 2026 to open in late 2027; a second 150,000-square-foot office building waiting on an anchor tenant; and two more residential parcels. Celebration Park — a multipurpose lawn with a walking loop, bocce, cornhole and room to close a street for a farmers market or a concert — is the public space the whole plan turns around.

Two components from the 2022 approval have since changed. The two regulation-size ice rinks in the approved plan no longer appear in current marketing; a separate private two-rink facility was announced elsewhere in the county in 2024. And no restaurant or retail tenant at Springline has been publicly named yet, the grocer included.

There is no community development authority and no special tax district at Springline. In December 2022 the EDA issued a $23 million tax-exempt revenue bond at 4.34%, due 2043, to finance public infrastructure and open space improvements — a limited obligation of the Authority, payable from county payments subject to appropriation. As of June 30, 2024, $12.3 million of those proceeds were still restricted for the work. On top of that: the $16 million land purchase, more than $20 million budgeted for infrastructure and utilities, $677,991 in final lease-termination payments to clear the old center, the county's own 75,000-square-foot lease in the office building, and the $12.9 million police station.

Springline sits in a Technology Zone, which carries a defined package: waivers of building, land-disturbance, zoning, site-plan and sign permit fees; a utility connection fee credit; a BPOL tax exemption for five years, full for new companies and partial for relocating ones; and a machinery and tools tax rebate for five years for manufacturers.

The trade area is the argument: 546,264 people within a 20-minute drive at an average household income of $108,399, 1,022,786 within 30 minutes, CJW Medical Center 2.5 miles away with more than 750 beds and 2,500 employees, and The Boulders next door — 1.1 million square feet of office across 200 acres.

Last updated September 2026.