Harris Teeter opening delayed

When the Harris Teeter grocery store at Hastings Market Place in Manassas will open is anyone’s guess.

The North Carolina-based company was forced to postpone the opening, originally scheduled for July, because of problems with Opus Corporation East, the developer of the shopping center at Wellington Road and the Prince William Parkway, according to store spokeswoman Catherine Reuhl.

The opening date is “up in the air,” she said.

“There were delays in construction, so we’re not able to open the store yet,” Reuhl said.

The construction delays can be attributed to trouble faced by Opus East, the developer of the shopping center.

A lawsuit filed in federal court against the U.S. General Services Administration has Opus East tied up in court.

The company said the GSA hasn’t yet paid for a 269,000-square-foot building to house the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Center for Weather and Climate Prediction that it is building in College Park, Md.

Court records show that Opus East is involved in the lawsuit against the GSA because the administration requested lease modifications that Opus East officials said were beyond the realm of their obligations.

The company agreed to a “tenant improvement allowance” of up to $10.8 million, but the GSA asked for $37 million in improvements, stated the lawsuit filed by Maryland Enterprise LLC, on behalf of Opus East.

Elizabeth Via, director of community development in Manassas, said that the city made allowances to permit a dental office in the shopping center to open before the project was completed.

“There are improvements that are needed to the site in order for all of the businesses to open up out there,” Via said of the shopping center, where weeds grow in the unpainted parking lot with large sections barricaded to traffic.

“What we’ve done, to get the dentist company open, is we’ve given them a temporary certificate of occupancy and we’ll just keep giving them one of those every 29 to 69 days,” Via said. “We could do the same thing for Harris Teeter, but we’ve not been contacted by them.”

Via said the city would be willing to work with the developers and property owners to move things along at the shopping center.

Manassas Bureau Chief Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.