Burning Questions

Burning Question: Why is the old Pier 1 building in Leesburg empty again?

Burning Question: I was wondering what happened to the furniture store that was taking over Pier 1 in Leesburg. All the furniture in there is gone. Do you know what happened? — Patrick F.

We don’t know exactly what happened, but we have a good guess and also a good idea of what is going into that building next.

The no-name furniture store that popped up for a few weeks is indeed gone. This could be for any number of reasons, but it’s possible the store was always meant to be temporary.

Sometimes a landlord will offer a short-term lease to a tenant with the caveat that when a permanent tenant comes along, the temporary tenant is out. Think of those Spirit Halloween stores that show up just for a month or two each year.

The landlord of the shopping center — the Leesburg Plaza on East Market Street — has apparently divided the 9,000 s.f. former Pier 1 into two parts. They’ve announced that 3,500 s.f. of the space has been leased by Pacific Dental Services. PDS is a company that provides services to dental practices, so it’s not clear if the new location will be an actual dentist’s office, or a support office for PDS.

The other half of the building — roughly 5,500 s.f. — has apparently not been leased yet. We’ve reached out to the landlord of the center for more details and we’ll keep our eye out for any announcements about that space.

If you’ve got a Burning Question for The Burn about something you’ve spotted in the area related to roads, restaurants, retail or other things we cover, send it to  and we’ll see if we can get you an answer.