A developer’s plans call for subdividing a 17½-acre farm off Benns Church Boulevard into six commercial parcels.

Hampton-based Harrison and Lear submitted an application on Dec. 9 to Isle of Wight County seeking general commercial zoning for “Bridger’s Quarter,” which would abut The Oaks Veterinary Clinic to the east and be bordered on the west by a 2021-proposed but stalled Wawa convenience store and gas station at Benns Church and Turner Drive.

A conceptual plan submitted with Harrison and Lear’s application shows the development including a roughly 103,000-square-foot, three-story, climate-controlled self-storage facility; a 25,000-square-foot shopping center with retail and office rental space; a 30,000-square-foot, two-story medical office building; and three other commercial parcels ranging from 1,072 to 7,680 square feet, the largest of which is listed on the plans as a tire store. The two remaining parcels would be fast food restaurants with drive-thru service.

“At this time, we are not yet at a point where we have specifically identified the end user of the parcels,” Adam Turner, project manager for Harrison and Lear, told The Smithfield Times.

Bridger’s Quarter is one of several developments proposed within a mile radius of Benns Church Boulevard’s intersection with Turner Drive that last year factored into a master transportation plan for the area and a cost-sharing plan to build a single-lane roundabout on Turner Drive by 2029.

According to Turner and a traffic impact analysis by Kimley-Horn included with the Bridger’s Quarter application, the six parcels would add roughly 5,000 vehicles daily to Benns Church Boulevard. It would equate to a roughly 20% increase from the 24,000 average daily vehicular trips the four-lane divided highway saw in 2022, according to Virginia Department of Transportation data.

As a commercial development, it’s not expected to add to Isle of Wight County Schools’ enrollment.

Bridger’s Quarter would have its own primary access road off Benns Church at a planned four-way intersection that would also serve the 615-home Sweetgrass development county supervisors approved in 2024. There would be secondary access to Bridger’s Quarter via the roundabout.

Smithfield’s Town Council, which under an informal agreement with the county gets to weigh in on developments adjacent to the town-county border, has until Jan. 20 to provide comments to the county, according to Tammie Clary, the town’s community development and planning director.

Turner said the responses from the town’s and county’s staff will gauge the amount of work needed to bring Bridger’s Quarter into alignment with that feedback. While he didn’t estimate a specific month or date for the project to be reviewed by the county’s Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors, Turner said he expects the matter will reach the supervisors this year.

Harrison and Lear’s submitted project narrative states the company will have “participation in the agreements agreed upon in the State Revenue Sharing Grant Award for the Turner Drive intersection.”

Smithfield last year agreed to pay Isle of Wight County just over $900,000, or 11.8%, by an estimated 2027 construction start date as its share of the $7.6 million estimated cost to build the roundabout and related intersection improvements.

The county, in 2024, received $972,000 through VDOT’s Smart Scale cost-to-benefit funding formula for the project and agreed that year to accept an additional $2.2 million VDOT grant for the traffic circle and related turn lanes.

The county would be responsible for passing along and collecting each developer’s proportionate share of the $4.5 million remainder, which includes the town’s share. 

Harrison and Lear and Miami-based Frontier Development, which would build the Wawa, would collectively owe just under $600,000 for their respective plans to develop the southeast quadrant of the intersection.