Fairfax County may spend $100,000 a year for help in selecting a developer and planning the reuse of a shuttered prison.
The county is on track to approve a two-year contract with Basile Baumann & Associates to assist in preparing a major part of the Laurel Hill project, which will turn parts of the 2,000-plus-acre Lorton prison into a mixed-use development of homes and stores while preserving many of the prison buildings. The contract could be extended to as many as five years.
The county is now soliciting bids from developers for an 80-acre parcel for the mixed-use development.
Developers are expected to arrive with creative ideas for Laurel Hill, said Chris Caperton, the project manager for Fairfax County Planning and Zoning, though the county does have a set framework they will have to work within. He said interest in taking on the project has been percolating among firms.
“I get a call or two a week from people that are interested in the project,” he said.
The mixed-use development is part of a larger plan for the former prison in southern Fairfax County, which was deeded to the county in 2002, a year after the last prisoners were transferred out. Also planned on the site is a massive arts center, acres of park space and a possible equestrian center and sports-plex.
An 18-hole municipal golf course already sits on the land.
