NK business building joins ranks of those going ‘green’

Developers of a two-story, 24,000 square-foot retail/commercial building in Quinton are touting the $3 million structure’s “green” design as well as its potential to contribute to the New Kent County business scene.

Billy and Peggy Cunningham, developers of “the Corner at Rock Creek,” are accepting tenants for the business cornerstone of their housing development, Rock Creek Villas, on Route 60. Already, owners of Jones & Hawkes Restaurant, formerly near Providence Forge, and Domino’s Pizza, have signed on. Expected to be on board soon are a coffee/ice cream shop and a hair salon along with dental and insurance offices.

Up to a dozen businesses — eight on the second floor and three to four at ground level — can eventually call the brick building home, Billy Cunningham said. Jones & Hawkes will occupy 3,000 square feet on the ground floor and is expected to open in the next three to four weeks. Domino’s will move into a 1,600 square-foot, first floor space and should open by Sept. 1.

The building provides natural gas and electric service and is handicapped accessible thanks to an elevator, Cunningham said. Energy efficient fluorescent lighting along with thermal pane windows and doors add to the building’s green features, he said.

“We have natural gas and heat pumps so we can switch from electricity to natural gas in winter,” he said. “Below 40 degrees, the heat pumps turn off and the gas turns on, and above 40 degrees the opposite happens.”

Inside, walls are built using 2×6 framework designed to support thicker insulation.

“We insulated all of the floors before we poured them,” Cunningham said. “The air outside won’t transfer inside so the inside stays the same temperature all the time.”

Thicker insulation along with cinderblock interior walls promise quiet for tenants, he said. And each office area as well as the building’s attic sport individual sprinkler systems.

“If there’s a fire in one part of the building, it will be confined there because all [offices] are on different zones,” he said. “The county is regulating everything we’re doing as to following county regulations and safety.”

“We’re trying to keep on the cutting edge so as not to be outdated,” Peggy Cunningham said.

“And maintenance free,” her husband chimed in.

At build-out, the development will include 60 age-restricted houses, meaning at least one resident in each dwelling must be age 55 or older. Two small ponds are being constructed with both to feature floating fountains and lights.

“It’s all about leaving something for our grandchildren,” Billy Cunningham said. “This building should provide many, many years of service.”