Town Crier Articles

The New Town Maintenance Building

Posted on February 1, 2022 7:00 AM by New Town Commercial Association (NTCA)

Categories: NTRA Business

The New Town maintenance building, located at the end of Discovery Park Boulevard, is now completed and fully approved by James City County. The building is two stories, contains about 1800 sq. ft., and is located on a site of about 1.5 acres. The form of the building and the materials are consistent with the design guidelines for New Town.

The building was designed and built to be a maintenance and storage facility. As such, it is not open to the public and was not designed or built to host meetings. The building and the land are owned by the New Town Commercial Association (NTCA), but the New Town Residential Association (NTRA) leases space therefore sharing in the use and costs of the building.

The building and the land provide many benefits to all of New Town. These include important operational and financial improvements.

Without a central maintenance and storage facility, operations in New Town have been inefficient. Vendors have not had a location to meet management staff. There has not been a place to direct work from, to take deliveries, or where the work crews can use restrooms. Dog station bags, traffic control items, gators, tools, salt, mulch, snow shovels, banners, holiday decorations, books and records, etc. have been kept in various locations, sometimes in New Town and sometimes elsewhere. Some items were kept in temporarily vacant retail spaces and some tools and equipment were kept outside which shortened their useful life. This new facility provides for central storage and smoother operations are already being achieved.

The financial benefits are significant. Both the NTCA and the NTRA have previously paid for off-site storage. This is no longer necessary. Landscape companies working for NTRA and NTCA have needed to have their staff pick up equipment from somewhere else and bring it to New Town, with the driving time included as part of the work day. Now some equipment can be kept at this facility and the work day will start in New Town. Further, landscape companies have been very limited in their ability to store bulk materials (mulch, salt, fertilizer, etc.) on site, which has been inefficient and more expensive. The savings from these new efficiencies will be significant.

The centralization of storage and maintenance functions will also improve life in New Town. As we walk, bike, and drive in New Town we will see less of the staff, equipment, and materials that are necessary to keep New Town beautiful.

The new storage and maintenance building and its excess land will afford New Town the ability to benefit from a central storage and maintenance facility for many years. The building can potentially be expanded so as times change and needs change, the building and land can adapt to meet many future needs.

Comments

Comment By: Tom Dawkins

Posted on February 3, 2022 12:49 PM

Thanks for the article. It sounds like a nice facility. Since homeowners are paying considerably more to rent this space (plus half the utilities?) vs. Ironbound Storage, can the NTCA hold an open house, or can a homeowner request a private tour? Since vendors can meet with management staff there, is there any reason why the NTRA cannot use this for meetings - esp. since there is a restroom?

REPLY FROM the New Town Commercial Association. The maintenance building is industrial in design and construction. The building was designed and approved By James City County for maintenance related uses only. It was not intended to provide meeting spaces. As such it is not fully handicap accessible. Also, access, fire safety, parking and other items were not designed or approved for the building to used as a meeting space.

The building is used daily by maintenance staff and vendors. The daily use of the building and the amount of equipment and materials in the building (the Gators that are used throughout New Town, supplies such as trash bags and dog waste bags, and a variety of other items) suggest that an “open house” might be difficult.

Last Edited: 02/05/2022 at 08:25 PM