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A
Vision Of Success
By Tim Sullivan
The Northern Virginia Daily - April 1, 1999
When
C. Douglas Adams bought 147 acres on Winchester's eastern edge
in 1972 with his law partner, Albert L. Kassabian, the land was
nothing but pasture. The parcel was south of Millwood Pike, just
west of Interstate 81, and cut off from any public roads.
For years, Adams had to take a dirt
farm path to reach it. But even when the neighborhood was nothing
but fields, Adams says, he imagined stores and shoppers. It was
a vision he maintained through bankruptcy reorganization early
this decade. And it was a vision he watched materialize with the
development of the city's burgeoning South Pleasant Valley Road
corridor.
The fruition of that vision, in
turn, has helped with the Adams Cos. recognition as one of the
fastest-growing businesses in the state. The business group was
the only real estate firm to rank among the Fantastic 50 fastest-growing
companies, as named by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce last night.
The Adams Cos. is a family of three
businesses managed by Adams' son, Kevin D. Adams.
Adams-Legge Development Group Inc.
develops commercial property, in some cases hiring contractors
construct buildings and in others simply obtaining land use permits
and selling to other developers.
Adams-Nelson & Associates, Inc.
brokers real estate sales and leases. Adams-Nelson Property
Management Inc. manages properties, some owned by The Adams Cos.
The success of the businesses has
paralleled the growth of Winchester and Frederick County during
the 1990s. No business has played a bigger role in the rapid development
of South Pleasant Valley into a regional shopping hub.
The land that Doug Adams bought in 1972, at auction, has since
sprouted three shopping centers: Apple Blossom Corners, Pleasant
Valley Marketplace and the new Home Depot Centre. Seven acres
were sold to the developers of the Apple Blossom Mall. Another
section was sold to Wal-mart as the site of its Supercenter.
But South Pleasant Valley is far
from the only area where the Adams group is active. Adams-Legge
owns the Airport Business Centre, across from Winchester Regional
Airport. Fifty-three acres of that park were sold in 1996 to Kohl's,
which built a distribution center. Next to the airport, Adams-Legge
is developing Pegasus Business Center, already home to a half-dozen
businesses.
The group leases to Tenneco Packaging
the site of its Kernstown factory and it renovated and now leases
the Salvation Army's former quarter in downtown Winchester - named
the Fern Adams Building, after Doug Adams' late wife.
Adams-Nelson is one of the most
active commercial brokers in the area, becoming increasingly active
in Warren County and dabbling in the Strasburg area. On of its
agents brokers land investment from Florida to Minnesota.
Altogether, it's enough to make
a good case for Kevin Adams' claim that The Adams Cos. is the
biggest full-service real estate firm in the area.
"DAB Commercial Realty is a
great commercial broker," he said. "You have companies
like Cambridge Corp. that are great property managers. Shockey
[Cos.] is certainly a great developer. But we do it all."
The group has done enough the last
several years to garner attention from the state chamber. The
organization names the Fantastic 50 each year, ranking nominees
according to their rate of sales revenue growth from 1995 to 1997.
The chamber considers only privately held Virginia-based companies
with sales of $200,000 to $100 million.
The Adams Cos. reported revenue
of $1,803,470 in 1997, an increase of 259 percent from 1995. The
group had just six employees at that time, although the number
has since about tripled.
A second Winchester company, Trex
Company LLC, also was named among the Fantastic 50. Trex, which
makes a wood polymer decking out of sawdust and recycled plastic
bags, made the list for the second year in a row, according to
the chamber.
In fact, it was the second straight
year that Trex was recognized as the state's fastest growing manufacturer.
It reported sales of $34.1 million in 1997, an increase of 356
percent.
Kevin Adams, president of the Adams
group since his father became chairman several years ago, attributes
the corporation's success to "great employees, loyal customers
and a great economy."
"Obviously we've benefited
form the tremendous growth in and around Winchester," he
said. "I think everyone has been surprised by it. As new
shopping centers were built, people would say, "How can we
take any more retail?" And yet, those stores have done well.
It turned out that this market was a lot larger than most of us
ever knew."
While Winchester and Frederick County
have a combined population of about 80,000, analysts say its market
includes 220,000 resident, including much of Shenandoah, Warren
and Clarke counties, as well as jurisdictions to the north and
west in West Virginia.
The Adams had to wait and work a
while before enjoying success. Doug Adams, a Fairfax attorney,
says the 147 acres looked like a great site when he bought 27
years ago, due to its proximity to Interstate 81 and U.S. Route
50. But the land was untouchable at the time in terms of commercial
development because neither roads nor utilities had been extended.
Adams said he began lobbying the
city as soon as he bought the property to extend South Pleasant
Valley, but the project wasn't undertaken for years. "Land
development always takes longer than you expect," he said
during a telephone interview this week.
Pleasant Valley was eventually extended,
and the Apple Blossom Mall opened in 1982, solidifying the corridor's
destiny as the city's retail hub. Adams sold a chunk of his property
to the developers of Apple Blossom Corners. But he fell on hard
times in the late 1980s when recession slashed land values and
he was unable to carry payments. In 1990, he filed Chapter 11
bankruptcy, seeking protection to reorganize the company and his
debts. At that time, Adams and Kassabian divided what remained
of their land, about 100 acres, with Kassabian getting 40 acres,
including the future site of Lowe's Home Improvement Center, and
Adams taking the rest.
"It occurred to us that year
to throw in the down and do something else," Kevin Adams
said.
His household expenses that year
were $40,000, while his income $12,000, he said. But the
company worked its way through bankruptcy. When it emerged three
years later, land values had rebounded and the race was on along
South Pleasant Valley Road.
Kevin Adams said the business deserves
some of the credit for its success, that the outcome wasn't a
foregone conclusion given the city's rate of growth.
"Anyone could have bought the
property," he said. "And if any 10 people had bought
it, five of them would have gone out of business and five would
have been successful." Doug Adams says he always expected
his first investment in the area to pan out.
"I think back to the days
when I had to get in my pickup to drive over that land and I remember
that we had high hopes through all those things that went on,"
he said. "We committed ourselves to the long haul. When I
see it now, I get a strong feeling that we helped create something
worthwhile."
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