THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 11, 1994 TAG: 9408110563
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
Corporate Landing, a long-stalled office park that City Council members had feared was a ``white elephant,'' is set to sell its first chunk of land to a private client and usher in a new model of shopping and work in Hampton Roads.
The curvy roads were laid out four years ago in this 400-acre park off General Booth Boulevard, along with a still-dry fountain. But the city's Development Authority, which owns the property, has yet to close a sale, other than to the city for a school location. And there are no buildings on the site.
Now a multiplex cinema company is set to build a $4 million, 10- to 14-screen theater that would be the cornerstone of a development styled like a small-town main street. The theater would front on a street similar in style to Colley Avenue in Norfolk's Ghent. It would be lined with shops and would cater to pedestrians while still being open to traffic.
The company, Regal Cinema of Tennessee, has agreed to buy the 8-acre site for $825,000, said Kenneth Palmer, chairman of the Development Authority. The sale will proceed as long as the City Council removes a zoning glitch that bars movie theaters from the site, Palmer said.
The Planning Commission approved the zoning change Wednesday on an 8-3 vote. Regal already operates cinemas in Kiln Creek in Newport News and at Greenbrier in Chesapeake, city officials said.
Surrounding civic leagues objected to the zoning change. They said the original plan for the office park was for stores to serve only nearby businesses. They said they feared another shopping center in the area.
Palmer said the original plan always called for stores to serve both businesses and residents.
If the sale goes through, it could mean a dramatic reversal of fortune for the park. Just last weekend, the City Council, at its annual retreat, discussed selling the site to be rid of ``a white elephant.''
The City Council has loaned $6 million to the authority, which has been unable to sell enough property on this and other projects to meet its bills. The authority owes NationsBank $8 million on the office park.
The authority and the city's Economic Development Department introduced the concept of a traditional town center two years ago. Since then, the department hasbeen aggressively marketing the concept around the nation, said Mark R. Wawner, project manager.
Development officials would have sought the zoning change long ago, Wawner said, but they did not realize that movie theaters were prohibited under a code section prohibiting ``union halls and auditoriums.''
Main-street-style town centers have been built in more affluent areas, but never in Hampton Roads. Reston, Va., has its Town Center, and Boca Raton, Fla., has its Mizner Park. Historic Williamsburg has Merchants Square.
Despite the comparisons to a small town, the Corporate Landing project would essentially still be a shopping center. But the stores would front on traditional streets. Parking would be on the back and sides of the complex. The movie theater, complete with a traditional marquee, would front on a square formed by intersecting streets.
A restaurant and a small store are prepared to go in with the cinema, Wawner said. Once the first store is constructed, Wawner said, the authority is committed to the traditional town concept, because the streets are built first.
The authority hopes the retail center, which would cover 24 acres, will kick-start sales of office property. Business people would be able to walk from their offices to the stores and restaurants in the town center. But the authority has yet to sell its first site for offices.
Wawner said people should have faith that the park will succeed. The economy, he said, is just beginning to turn around. He said the much-praised Research Triangle park near Raleigh was vacant for seven years before getting its first client.
Once operating, the movie theater complex is projected to contribute $300,000 annually in property and amusement taxes.
The development would give the General Booth area both a retail and a business center, Wawner said, and would allow people to live closer to where they work and socialize. The proposal has similarities to the Central Business District plan in the Pembroke area, except that project is far larger in scope and perhaps further from realization.
``People need to have a vision of what this area, and this city, will be,'' Wawner said. ``We need an employment center in this part of the city.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by ALEX MARSHALL
Mizener Park in Boca Raton, Fla., is a main-street style town center
done in the fashion proposed for Corporate Landing in Virginia
Beach. The first step in the project would be a movie complex with
10 to 14 screens.
Color staff map
Area shown: Site of new retail development
by CNB