New events center planned for Central Virginia

The majority owner of a comic book and collectibles events company has bought a school site in Goochland County he plans to turn into an events center.

Brett Carreras through the entity Goochland Convention Center LLC has purchased for $630,000 the 14-acre site of Salem Christian School at 1700 Cardwell Road. The seller in the deal was Potomac District Council of the Assemblies of God.

Carreras says Salem Christian’s lease expires this summer and he plans to begin hosting events at property as early as March. The property is home to two attached buildings that total 39,000 square feet, Carreras says. Only one of the buildings is usable for now, and the other requires renovations, which have not been finalized.

Salem Christian principal, Todd Brooking, says the school had tried buying its building and is now looking for another location for its roughly 110 students. Brooking says Salem Christian opened in 1996 in Goochland and has been at its current address for the last nine years. 

Carreras is the majority owner of Richmond, VA Comicon LLC, which organizes events around comic books and pop culture memorabilia. VA Comiccon has five scheduled events on the books for 2019 split between George Mason University and the Richmond Raceway.

Carreras got the idea to launch a new events space out of the challenges he ran into finding the right locations for his events. He says he will cater to the market looking for space for $5,000 or less.

Carreras says starting out he hopes to attract businesses and corporations looking for meeting space. Operations could someday expand to include outdoor events, farmers markets and weddings.

John Jay Schwartz of Have Site Will Travel and The Man With Square Feet handled the sale of the Goochland property.