Fauquier High’s Caroline Diehl and Franco Camarca named Athletes of the Year. Page 11 u
July 25, 2018
Our 201st year
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Vol. 201, No. 30
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www.Fauquier.com
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$1.50
Officials mum on proposed cancer center By Karen Chaffraix Times Staff Writer
Cecchi comes from a family famous for its real-estate developments in the Washington, D.C. area. His father, Giuseppe Cecchi, is an Italian immigrant who helped design and develop one of the most famous condominium complexes in the city — Watergate — in the 1970s. The elder Cecchi went on to form the IDI Group, originally known as the International Development Inc., which has developed thousands of condominiums and apartments in the Washington area, including Leisure World in both Maryland and Virginia and the Rivergate apartment complex, which opened in Woodbridge last year. Cecchi’s three brothers are involved in the real-estate development part of the business, while he focuses on the events business. The 172-acre property at 5025 Casanova Road includes a restaurant, pub and reception hall, a 21-room inn, spa, swimming pool and vineyard. The property hosted weddings and receptions, anniversary celebrations, corporate gatherings and retreats.
The greater Fauquier County area can look forward to a new development in the realm of cancer care in the not too distant future, but because details about a new cancer center planned for Fauquier hospital leaked prematurely, Fauquier Health officials say, the larger picture may not be divulged for some time. The Town of Warrenton’s Office of Planning and Community and Development is evaluating Fauquier Health’s 21-page site plan for the new cancer-treatment center, identified as “Fauquier Medical Office Building, 210 W Shirley Avenue.” Town officials have until Aug. 28 to review the plan, according to Warrenton Planning Director Brandie Schaeffer. Last week, Fauquier Now reported that a vacant office building was to be removed from a 3.6-acre site adjacent to the Fauquier hospital, and that construction of a new building at the corner of West Shirley Avenue and Carriage House Lane would replace it. According to the article, which quoted Fauquier Health Chief Operations Officer Donna Stanton extensively, the $12.4 million, 23,136-square-foot “Fauquier Health Center for Cancer Care” will offer a broader array of cancer care services than is currently offered at the hospital in the interest of keeping both patients and business in the community. But Fauquier Health CEO Chad Melton and spokeswoman Robin Earl declined to elaborate on the plans this week, citing the desire to wait for “a bigger announcement.” “We are moving services already provided from the hospital to a free-standing building,” Melton said in an email. “Our goal long-term is to add additional services.” “Fauquier Health doesn’t have anything to add at present,” said Earl, when asked to provide a narrative of the overall plan.
See RESORT, page 3
See CENTER, page 2
COURTESY PHOTO Antonio Cecchi’s Gala Cuisine Group has purchased the 172-acre Poplar Springs resort in Casanova.
New plans, new name for Poplar Springs Manor Cecchi family purchases Casanova resort for $4 million By James Ivancic Times Staff Writer
Antonio Cecchi was answering questions about his company’s acquisition of Poplar Springs Inn & Spa while the carpets were being cleaned around him in a room of the Casanova resort last week. The tidying up is part of the deep cleaning that happens whenever Gala Cuisine Group, which Cecchi heads, acquires a property, he explained. “The first step is we deep clean like you’ve never seen before. Then we declutter. Then we clean again. Then we put on a fresh coat of paint as it were — moving furniture, pictures. We reframe it in new fresh light,” he said. That done, they consider new possibilities. Gala Cuisine closed the purchase of the property —“in the $4 million range” — July 11. It was “a very fair price” in Cecchi’s estimation. “We are very particular. A building has to have the right bones. You can’t take a car and convert it to a balloon. There are certain things that a property has to have. This had it,” Cecchi said. INSIDE Business.............................................15 Classified............................................35 Communities......................................30 Faith...................................................34
Libraries.............................................33 Lifestyle..............................................23 Looking Back......................................19 Opinion.................................................7
Obituaries.............................................9 Puzzles...............................................10 Real Estate..........................................29 Sports.................................................11