Summit Pointe continues growth

Chesapeake Mayor Rick West lives in the city’s Greenbrier section, so he frequently drives past Summit Pointe, the rapidly expanding mixed-use development centered around the corporate headquarters of Fortune 500 discount retailer Dollar Tree Inc.

And West likes what he sees at Summit Pointe, which is aiming to be a new pedestrian-friendly downtown district.

The latest step is Mosaic, a $68 million, 212,000-square-foot luxury apartment tower that began construction in April. When Summit Pointe’s first three phases are completed in five years or so, the development is expected to include 1.75 million square feet of office and retail space plus more than 1,400 apartment units.

“I’ve met a lot of people who have come to this part of the city because of Summit Pointe,” West says. “They’re starting businesses here because of Dollar Tree’s presence and Summit Pointe’s presence.”

In 2015, after Dollar Tree’s $8.5 billion acquisition of North Carolina-based Family Dollar Stores Inc., the company decided to expand its 200,000-square-foot “store support center” in Chesapeake’s central business district. Dollar Tree then built the 12-story corporate headquarters tower that would become the first phase for Summit Pointe.

That led Dollar Tree to form a subsidiary, Summit Pointe Realty LLC, to create the mixed-use development around its headquarters.

West described it in 2018 as “the beginning of a new Downtown Chesapeake.”

Phase Two began with the Helix apartment building, completed in summer 2020. Next came 555 Belaire, a six-story office building that was finished early this year. With Mosaic now under construction, the final element of Phase Two will likely be another residential building, which would break ground in early 2022 and be completed in fall 2023.

Even before the pandemic created an impetus for moving activities outdoors, Summit Pointe’s development plans called for plenty of outdoor spaces, such as patio dining and pocket parks, says Chris Williams, a senior vice president with Dollar Tree and Summit Pointe Realty.

There is no current time frame for the start of Summit Pointe’s Phase Three, which will ultimately begin with the extension of Belaire Avenue to better connect the development with the rest of the Greenbrier district. More residential space is almost a certainty, and if recovery from the pandemic permits, a hotel could follow in the future. “We’ll see where the market goes,” Williams says.