One of the last bastions of quiet country living in western Henrico County is alive with bulldozers, cranes and construction workers.

Developers are turning the former pastureland into West Broad Village, where people can live, eat, shop and work without driving their cars out of the garage.

The sprawling, 115-acre development sits off West Broad Street in the Short Pump area of Henrico. It is scheduled to open next year. Apartments and offices above stores will wrap around parking garages in the center of the complex.

How successful the project will be, especially in the early stages, will depend on the economy. With a year to go, home sales and retail leasing are sluggish.

West Broad Village will be the second major development in the county to open within the next year. The Shops at White Oak Village is set to open in eastern Henrico in October.

Christine Chmura, president and chief economist for Chmura Economics & Analytics, said it's not the best time for large-scale developments.

However, Richmond is growing faster than the rest of the state, and the area's economy will be able to support the expansion, she said.

White Oak will benefit from growth at Fort Lee, which is about 25 miles from the eastern Henrico shopping center, Chmura said. "The expansion will greatly add to the demand for that center."

Right now, West Broad Village looks like a mega-sized construction site with half-finished buildings and dirt -- lots of dirt.

With gas prices at $4 a gallon, Patrick Ashley, a sales and marketing manager for Ryan Homes, said potential buyers are interested in simplifying their lives.

"People are telling me that the higher gas prices go, the more attractive West Broad gets," he said. Residents will be able to walk to the grocery store and to work; go to dinner and shop, all without leaving the area.

Ryan Homes has sold 14 town houses, Ashley said.

The development is expected to have about 550 town houses and about 340 apartments. Eagle Homes and Prospect Homes also are building on the site.

The appeal is the area and the concept, Ashley said.

"For someone who lives in, let's say, in Goochland and works in Innsbrook or even downtown, this is a great spot because the commutes are shorter. After work and the weekends, they can just park their cars and not have to worry about it."

West Broad Village will have 420,000 square feet of retail space. By comparison, the nearby Short Pump Town Center is 1.2 million square feet.

The main shopping district at West Broad Village will be built into the heart of the development on a "main street."

One of the most talked-about tenants for West Broad Village is a Whole Foods Market, which is set to open this year.

The center also will house a Books-a-Million, REI, an aloft hotel, boutiques and specialty shops. A possibility is HomeGoods, a discount home décor store. Restaurants include McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant and Kona Grill.

C. Lee Warfield III, executive vice president of Thalhimer/Cushman & Wakefield, said leasing activity has slowed, as the general malaise in the economy lingers.

Thalhimer, a commercial real estate company in Richmond, is leasing space at West Broad Village for Florida developer Unicorp National Developments Inc.

Despite slower leasing interest, the West Broad location is in a growing area and that is an advantage, Warfield said.

"Short Pump still has the most attractive space to fill. And West Broad is really a unique project," he said. "If you look at the macro, [West Broad] definitely eliminates congestion and sprawl by putting everything in one place."
Contact Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or LLLovio@timesdispatch.com.