Chesterfield development enters final phase

With a commercial occupancy rate of 95 percent and all the home lots sold, the Chesterfield Square-Chesterfield Village planned development is entering its final phase, according to its developer, Larry Lipscomb. Construction this summer of a new law office for Hazelrigg and Roberts will complete Chesterfield Square.

Only 10 of the original 150 acres to be developed are left to be sold, and those merely await a zoning change to authorize broader use, said property manager Barry Cox. The land is now zoned for motels and offices, but a change to commercial will make it easier to develop, he added.

Chesterfield Square, as part of a planned community, was designed to cater to the tenants of the nearby homes and apartments in Chesterfield Village by providing convenient shopping and services.

Originally the square was half office and half commercial, but now it's 80 percent office, with lawyers, architects and engineers in place of retail stores that didn't fare too well in the development, Lipscomb said.

"People just didn't go there to shop," Cox said.

Lawyer Chris Hazelrigg and partner Josh Roberts, who already have offices in the square, need more space. Their new place will be on the corner of Cox Road and Chesterfield Boulevard, which "will finish out the master plan for the village," Lipscomb said. The firm practices family and juvenile law, as well as civil, business and criminal law.

"I've been out here since 1996, and where we are now we've outgrown the office space," Hazelrigg said. "We considered the option of leasing a bigger space or buying our own property."

Crunching a few numbers convinced the partners to buy and build.

The land cost about $85,000, Hazelrigg said, and the property came with the added benefit of established services, such as convenient free parking. "The goal is to keep the entire cost between $100 to $110 per square foot," he said.

Empire Bank will finance the project.

The space to be occupied by Hazelrigg and Roberts is 3,000 square feet.

The building will be two stories, and the second story will provide another 3,000 square feet to house more lawyers, Hazelrigg said.

The partners want to stay in Chesterfield Square because their firm draws clients from the community around them. "When we realized that we were growing, we searched citywide for a new location then realized that we draw benefit from being on this end of town. There are not so many attorneys on the southwest end of town. It is the best place to be in the future and a great place to grow."