Manassas Park's City Center Under New Ownership

City Center, Manassas Park’s luxury mixed-use development that has been the subject of ire and frustration because of its lack of retail businesses, is now under new ownership.

True North purchased City Center, also known as Park Center LLC from Clark Realty in late March.

The Lane Company is employed by True North to manage the residential portion of City Center. True North will hire a second company to manage the retail  space for rent on the first level of the complex, Manassas Park City Manager Jim Zumwalt said.

City officials aren't certain what company that is and when it will begin managing that aspect of City Center, he said. 

 Official figures and details of the sale weren’t immediately available.  

Several representatives of Lane were present on Tuesday at the Manassas Park City Council business meeting. They also attended a council workshop after the meeting along with other business leaders with interests in Manassas Park, Manassas and Prince William County.

 Many local lawmakers as well as residents of Manassas Park view the new ownership as promising, saying they hope it will bring retail to the street level store parcels that have sat vacant for more than three years.

 City officials and representatives of Clark have said the initiative to bring retail to City Center has failed in part because of the economic downtown and nearby competition from the flourishing Liberia Avenue.

 City Center is at the center of long-term plans for a downtown area for Manassas Park. It also lies within a new tax-incentive business district created by the Manassas Park City Council.

 Providing it meets certain predetermined goals , a business’  tax liability to the city would be lowered until 2023.