Click here to sign up to receive Fredericksburg Business Insider in your inbox each weekday morning.

The building is at 623 Caroline St. across from the Courtyard by Marriott hotel. Jake Crocker and Hayden Fisher, who own F.W. Sullivan’s on William Street, had intended to open a restaurant there called The Chimneys that would serve upscale Southern-style fare, but the project was derailed when an investor pulled out.

Crocker and Fisher, who own several restaurants in Richmond, had also planned to open a Mexican eatery called Jorge’s Cantina in the former Fatty J’s space at 106 George St. They later vacated that space as well and shifted the Jorge’s concept to Richmond.

Tommy Mitchell, who owns The Chimneys building, said he’s spoken with a couple of prospective restaurateurs interested in the space.

Rebecca and Michael Straley

A local husband-and-wife team has opened a new real estate brokerage firm in Stafford County.

Rebecca and Michael Straley this spring opened Fathom Realty Virginia out of an office at the Quantico Corporate Center in North Stafford.

The Straleys formerly ran Capitol Premier Realty in Fredericksburg. That firm is being merged into Fathom Realty, a Texas-based brokerage company focused on integrating new digital technology into the real estate business.

The Straleys’ operation is Fathom’s first in Virginia. The Straleys plan to open additional offices throughout the state and also in Maryland and hire dozens of agents.

MAA, which owns about 50,000 U.S. apartment units, bought the 33.6-acre complex Tuesday from South Carolina-based Johnson Development Associates.

The community will be renamed Station Square at Cosner’s Corner, a nod to the Virginia Railway Express station that will be built just down U.S. 17 from the complex.

MAA will manage the property itself, thus replacing Atlanta-based First Communities, which runs all of Johnson Development’s apartments. The on-site staff is expected to stay largely the same, however.

The sales price of the complex, which is near the Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, has not yet been made public.

The Haven at Cosner’s Corner includes 260 apartment units that are currently about 75 percent leased, said Ben Graves, president of Johnson Development’s multifamily division. Spotsylvania has approved another 220 units on that land, but Graves said his firm planned to build only another 132 units because of space constraints.

The right to build the second phase at the Cosner’s Corner complex will convey to MAA as part of Tuesday’s deal.

This is the second apartment deal between MAA and Johnson Development in the local market. MAA bought the 232-unit first phase of The Haven at Celebrate Virginia in late 2011 for $39.4 million and renamed it Seasons at Celebrate Virginia.

Johnson Development is now finishing work on the second Haven phase at Celebrate Virginia, a 250-unit development that is across the street from MAA’s Seasons complex and is currently about 35 percent leased, Graves said.

MAA might someday buy that second phase, but no deal has been finalized. Graves said his company would be happy to be long-term owners locally, but it would also consider a sale if market conditions were right.

Johnson Development doesn’t have any other apartment projects in the pipeline locally, but Graves said it’s possible the company could build additional local complexes in the future. He doesn’t think the local apartment market has been over-saturated despite the many new units that have been built over the past few years.

Redwood AdVenture LLC, which does business as Century 21 AdVenture Redwood, announced Tuesday that it has acquired Prince William County-based Century 21 Stackhouse & Associates.

The company now has 265 agents and seven offices in Northern Virginia and Washington, including in Fredericksburg, Stafford County and Locust Grove.

Cindy Stackhouse, who opened Century 21 Stackhouse & Associates in 1998 with her family, will continue to be the office’s managing broker.

Click here to sign up to receive Fredericksburg Business Insider in your inbox each weekday morning.

Robert Shircliff and John Rayl, who are developing the River Glen community, are trying to make it as environmentally sensitive as possible. None of the homes will be visible from River Road. More than half of the 220-acre site will stay undeveloped, with the homes being built on two-acre lots on the remaining land.

River Glen is about five miles from Fall Hill Avenue. Battlefield Homes is among the companies that will be building houses in the subdivision starting this fall.

An affiliate of CSG Partners and Ryan Development purchased the land in late 2007 for $8.35 million. The property consists of six separate parcels zoned light industrial.

The land is along Centreport Parkway near the airport entrance, which is where the auction is scheduled at 11 a.m. June 12. Tranzon Fox is scheduled to handle the auction.

The owners of the land didn’t personally guarantee the loan from M&T Bank, said Rich McDaniel, a senior vice president for CBRE who for several years has been looking for users interested in the land.

The owners don’t think the land is worth the amount they have on the loan and have therefore decided to let the property be sold at auction unless a last-minute deal can be worked out with the lender or a third-party buyer, McDaniel said.

Click here to sign up to receive Fredericksburg Business Insider in your inbox each weekday morning.

Greg Hiebert helps run the local Chamber’s Leadership Fredericksburg program. He also works as a coach with Mary Washington Healthcare. SUZANNE CARR ROSSI / THE FREE LANCE–STAR

Though he’s lived in the Atlanta area for two decades, in many ways Fredericksburg feels like a second home to Greg Hiebert.

He’s greeted warmly by the staff at the downtown Courtyard by Marriott, where he stays when in town to help run the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Fredericksburg program and meet with Mary Washington Healthcare executives. When he goes out to dinner downtown, Hiebert knows more people than when he’s back home.

Given the role Hiebert has played in the local business community over the past decade, it’s hardly surprising that he is so well-known and well-liked. He estimates that he has worked with about 600 influential members of the local community during that time.

Hiebert’s connection with Fredericksburg dates back to 2003, a year after the U.S. Military Academy graduate started his Leadership Forward company in the Atlanta area.

That year, Fred Rankin was looking for someone to be his executive coach and help develop the leadership team at MediCorp Health System, which is now called Mary Washington Healthcare.

As CEO of MediCorp, Rankin found it hard to confide in anybody with whom he worked. He was looking for a confidant, and he wanted someone who could bring his senior leadership team together and help the organization develop future leaders.

Hiebert’s new firm was one of many that responded to MediCorp’s request for proposals to provide leadership consulting services. When Rankin first met with Hiebert in late 2003, the two quickly clicked and formed a close relationship that continues to this day.

Starting in 2004 and continuing for several years, Hiebert and his staff led frequent sessions to unify and strengthen MediCorp’s leadership team. He worked individually with Rankin to reinvigorate the CEO and help him understand his strengths and weaknesses. Hiebert still works with Rankin and Mary Washington Healthcare, though not as frequently as during the early years.

“It’s been a great relationship,” Rankin said. “He’s helped me immensely.”

While Hiebert was working with Rankin and his staff in the mid-2000s, the local Chamber was formulating a plan to launch Leadership Fredericksburg. MediCorp officials introduced Hiebert to Susan Spears, who was heading the Chamber’s efforts to start Leadership Fredericksburg.

Spears also clicked with Hiebert, whose firm was chosen to help the Chamber develop and run the nine-month leadership program.

Leadership Fredericksburg started in September 2007. Hiebert and Spears, who is now the Chamber’s president, are still running the program. The sixth class graduated Friday, and prospective members of the seventh class are now applying.

About 150 people have now completed the Leadership Fredericksburg program. Mary Washington Healthcare has been the title sponsor every year and will be again when the program starts for a seventh time in September, with Hiebert and Spears again at the helm.

Leadership Fredericksburg covers a variety of topics including team-building, generative listening and crucial conversations. Participants, all of whom are assigned mentors, also work on a service project for area nonprofits. Each participant’s leadership style and personality are analyzed and individually reviewed by Spears and Hiebert. Community leaders speak to the class at each session.

A tradition that has developed during one of the Friday Leadership Fredericksburg sessions is an all-day tour of the Chancellorsville battlefield, including a discussion of leadership lessons from the Civil War battle. That is a natural fit for Hiebert, who has transitioned from a military background into a successful career in leadership consulting.

Hiebert graduated from the U.S. Military Academy with a major in general engineering in 1981 before spending the next 12 years serving in the Army and teaching courses at West Point on leadership, ethics and organizational change. During that time he picked up a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.

In 1993 he began a decade of work in Atlanta that included stints at McKinsey & Co., BellSouth Telecommunications, Struthers Martin Inc. and Egon Zehnder International.

Hiebert, who is married with four children, started Leadership Forward with business partner Paul Litten in 2002. Since then, Hiebert has coached 155 executives all over the country. Hiebert’s philosophy is grounded in the belief that leadership plays a crucial role in an organization’s success or failure.

“I wanted to play a part in helping build more effective, profound and positive leadership in organizations and communities,” Hiebert says.

Spears said Hiebert brings huge amounts of positive energy, empathy and knowledge to his role with Leadership Fredericksburg.

“He just has that special personality that you can’t bottle,” she said.

Hiebert has come to love Fredericksburg during his decade of encounters with it. He said the city “represents the best of America” and is happy to be part of the community’s efforts to develop a “critical mass” of local leadership through the Chamber program.

“My life has been so enriched by the opportunity,” Hiebert said.

One of Hiebert’s interests is singing, an endeavor that he practices publicly on occasion as a way to stretch his own comfort levels. Here is video of Hiebert singing at Friday’s Leadership Fredericksburg graduation ceremony.