Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 7, 1993 TAG: 9306070030
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DELTAVILLE LENGTH: Long
She's no heartbreaker when viewed from the blacktop of Virginia 33. At this angle, Deltaville looks a little tired: one or two businesses boarded up, old houses sitting like stubborn retirees in shrubby green shawls.
But glide in through the serpentine shoals of the Piankatank River; chug up bright, busy Broad Creek; or drift in the half-moon perfection of Fishing Bay, and you'll fall hard for this Northern Neck hamlet.
That's what happened about five years ago to a financier yachtsman from crowded Fairfax County. Returning with a group of investors, he demonstrated his affection by buying a marina. Then another. And another and another.
With four waterfront operations, Marina Resorts Group Inc. now is a major community force. And some locals are worried that in a place long cherished for its sleepy charm, the big boys are waking things up.
"It's disappointing when old things change," said resident George Harris. "You know some things are going to change, but to have these people come in and just because they have money tell us what's going next door to us - we don't like it."
Harris, a 64-year-old retired Marine, lived in Virginia Beach until about 12 years ago. He moved because a beachfront view that once stretched from Fort Monroe to Fort Story shrank to glimpses of blue between new homes.
He and his wife headed for Deltaville, where he spent summers as a boy and always wanted to live anyway. Now he has condominiums on one side and an MRG marina on the other.
"Everywhere I go," he said, "someone else thinks it's nice and wants to kill it."
Harris, all Semper Fi jawline and granite handshake, tends to talk in the strongest possible terms. He doesn't exactly mean MRG is killing Deltaville; just yuppifying it - which might be worse.
With their MRG company vans, their khaki pants and logo-emblazoned shirts, bright red and blue rooftops and slick brochures, the company's look is noticeably snazzy against Deltaville's shabby comfort. This has always been a salty haven where a boater could spend a weekend slinging engine parts and working on his own rig; MRG's country-clubbish rules, some say, don't make room for that.
Even the names of the businesses sound exclusive: Club on Broad Creek, Club on Jackson Creek, Club on Fishing Bay and Club on Porpoise Cove.
"We're certainly not trying to eliminate any local people," said Brendan O'Brien, who manages the projects for MRG. O'Brien lives in nearby Urbanna and worked at Club on Broad Creek back when it was simply Norview's Marina.
His new company is one of the county's bigger employers, with 35 workers. O'Brien has helped put a friendlier, more familiar face on MRG; several local people said they disliked dealing with O'Brien's boss and the investor who fell in love with Deltaville in the first place, Emery Boudreau of Fairfax.
Now O'Brien handles community relations, including contentious local planning meetings where he struggles for permission to expand the four marinas.
Mostly MRG has renovated what was already there: new paint jobs, landscaping, improved boat slips. At Club on Fishing Bay, they added a swimming pool and air-conditioned bath houses, and at Club on Jackson Creek they are working on a new restaurant.
Not exactly wild-eyed redevelopment, but far from the rough, folksy way marine business has always been done here.
"They're bringing in kind of a corporate philosophy to management where it's always been hands-on, personal, owner-operator," said Jack Dozier, whose Dozier Marine Center has been on Broad Creek for more than a decade. "A fair number [of boaters] have left their marinas as they upped rates and changed management style."
As the old-timers leave, though, replacement boaters are beginning to arrive from other areas. That's a plus, Dozier said, because MRG is marketing Deltaville in a whole new part of the state - Northern Virginia.
"They're spreading the reputation of the town, and that will help all the marinas. In the long term, it will help the town," he said.
"I'm of the opinion that the Northern Virginia traffic is eventually moving south and possibly these people [MRG] will be the first in line to accommodate the high-dollar customer," agreed Billy Norton, who has run the nearby Norton's Yacht Sales more than 30 years.
In that time, Norton has come to appreciate competition: "There isn't any one outfit going to rule the whole community, because there are too many marinas involved."
About a dozen marinas line Broad Creek; three are on Fishing Bay and several are on Jackson Creek, though none so large as MRG's. Jackson Creek is a special problem, because it is the last place in this waterlogged town still clear for water skiing.
If O'Brien's company follows through on Jackson Creek expansion plans - for 24 guest suites and a 240-slip "boatel" - Harris and other locals fear the creek will become clogged with traffic and posted with "no wake" signs.
"We've got enough things running young people out now without destroying another piece of recreation," said Harris.
The trouble is that water skiing doesn't mean much for the local economy. If MRG hangs around and keeps spending money, it could mean profits for others.
"If they follow all their conceptual plans, it would have a significant impact on the Deltaville area," said Middlesex County Planning Director Paul Peckins. There would be taxes from new boat owners and more business for town merchants, he said.
"I think we will make Deltaville an area that people want to come to, either to have boats worked on or for recreation," said O'Brien. "The more people use our facilities, the more people go to the local restaurants or hardware store."
That's a dangerous channel to navigate, to capitalize on the appeal of Deltaville without ruining it. In a 1992 article about Deltaville in Coastal Cruising magazine, writer Tom Neale said that after 12 years of living on a houseboat, he ranked the town as "one of the finest cruising areas on the East Coast, and I've seen a few."
One boater who agrees is Norfolk lawyer and crooner-for-good-causes Peter Decker. He owns the only motel in Deltaville and keeps his houseboat at its 16-slip marina. In six years of ownership, Decker has put in horseshoe pits and a miniature golf course to try to attract more business.
Decker knows all the local fears about MRG and its spiffy marinas - that rich people are going to run everyone out of town, that MRG is going to sell out for a quick profit - and thinks they're groundless.
As far as he's concerned, once you fall in love with Deltaville, you're smitten for good. No one who cares about the old town would want to ruin it.
"I think it'll prove out," Decker said. "You would not even attempt to dream of changing the beauty and simplicity of Deltaville life."
by CNB