Jeff Fitzpatrick, president of the Spotsylvania County-based Blue & Gray Brewing Co., was on hand Tuesday when Gov. Bob McDonnell signed legislation allowing Virginia craft breweries to sell their beer for consumption on site. Previously, breweries could not sell beer to be consumed on site unless they had a full-service restaurant (which Blue & Gray now does, with the Lee’s Retreat brewpub).  Here is a picture of Jeff and the governor. Click for a larger version.

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Marc Smith

A member of the Fredericksburg-area commercial real estate brokerage community will be Spotsylvania County’s new business development manager.

Marc G. Smith, now vice president for commercial sales and leasing at Vakos Real Estate, will start his new job with Spotsylvania’s Department of Economic Development on June 1.

Smith grew up in the Fredericksburg area and lives in Spotsylvania’s Lee’s Parke community. He graduated from Massaponax High and is now the head coach of that school’s boys soccer team. The Radford University graduate said the new job seemed like a natural fit for his skill set and is a good opportunity to transition into a new career.

Spotsylvania Economic Development Director Tom Rumora said Smith stood out among more than 100 job applicants. Rumora liked Smith’s knowledge of the local community and commercial real estate business, which is an important part of economic development.

Smith’s job will involve meeting with and promoting existing Spotsylvania businesses, doing research, planning events and more.

Rodango’s Steak House at 1259 Carl D. Silver Parkway in Fredericksburg’s Central Park shopping center has closed. Steve Estes owned the restaurant.

A Fredericksburg-based company that provides computer support and other IT services for the federal government has leased about 8,800 square feet of office space in the newly rebranded Central Park Corporate Center.

InSysCo will move this fall to second-floor space at 1340 Central Park Boulevard, said Susan Bourgeois, who is leasing the office complex for property owner The Rappaport Cos. She said the firm will relocate from its smaller office on U.S. 1 in the city.

The complex’s name has been changed from the Central Park Town Center to the Central Park Corporate Center to reflect its focus on office users, Bourgeois said.

All of Fredericksburg will soon be defined as a Historically Underutilized Business Zone, which could boost city-based small businesses applying for federal contracts.

Three of the city’s five census tracts are already part of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s HUBZone program. The remaining two tracts — an area that includes much of downtown, the University of Mary Washington and a stretch of Lafayette Boulevard south of the Blue and Gray Parkway — will be as of Jan. 1.

The program is intended to help businesses in areas with lower incomes and higher unemployment rates. The Fredericksburg area as a whole has a low jobless rate, but the city traditionally has a higher one.

Census tracts that are included as HUBZones change periodically. Businesses that participate in the program must hire about a third of their workforce from HUBZone-designated areas.

The designation could attract more federal contractors to Fredericksburg, said Assistant Economic Development Director Richard Tremblay. One company — ILM Corp. — recently moved from Spotsylvania County to Lafayette Boulevard in the city in large part because of the HUBZone designation.

Tremblay said small tracts of Spotsylvania near the Spotsylvania Towne Centre and in the southeastern part of the county will also be designated as HUBZones as of Jan. 1, as will the Quantico Marine Corps Base.

Here is a shot of the interior of the renovated silk mill. Click for a larger image.

Ed Whelan has spent six years improving the Inn at the Olde Silk Mill on Princess Anne Street. On Tuesday he showed off the results during a semi-annual meeting of business and property owners along that stretch of Fredericksburg.

Whelan first renovated the 30-room hotel and lobby after buying the property in 2006 and then turned to rehabbing the former silk mill, which was built in the late 1880s. A brick courtyard has been added between the hotel and mill.

Whelan said the former silk mill was a mess when he started. He replaced windows, installed new plumbing, added insulation, put in an HVAC system and more. The facility can now play host to 300 people for wedding receptions, dinner shows, auctions, meetings, concerts and other special events.

The project is still a work in progress. Whelan plans to install a kitchen and wood floors, improve the building’s facade and put in new landscaping and signs. Longer-term he wants to build condos or townhouses on the property, which also includes several retail users.

To help with the costs, Whelan recently received an incentives package from Fredericksburg City Council that could be worth up to $78,500 in tax refunds over seven years. He also got a $35,500 grant from the city’s Economic Development Authority.

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Party City appears to be making plans to occupy this space.

A deal appears to be in the works for a new tenant at the former Borders bookstore at the Stafford Marketplace shopping center off Garrisonville Road.

Party City, which sells party supplies, costumes and accessories, has applied for a building permit with Stafford’s public works department for part of the 18,000-square-foot space that Borders vacated early last year as part of its bankruptcy filing.

Officials with Stafford Marketplace owner Kimco Realty Corp. have said they are working on a lease for that space but haven’t named any tenants. According to the Stafford building permit application, the space would be subdivided with Party City taking about 12,400 square feet. It’s unclear who the other tenant would be.

Party City also has a store in Fredericksburg’s Central Park shopping center.

Home Sweet Home Furniture moved into the former Borders space in North Stafford earlier this year on a short-term lease, but the store has since been holding a closing sale.

If Party City does occupy the space, it would mean both former Borders locations in the Fredericksburg area would have new businesses. Barnes & Noble is planning to open this fall inside the 24,000-square-foot former Borders space in Central Park.

Stafford County’s economic development department put together the following map showing the defense contractors, federal agencies and colleges within a five-mile radius of a planned research and technology park at the Quantico Corporate Center off U.S. 1 in North Stafford. Click it for a larger version.