THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409290035
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
FOLKS IN Portsmouth want to find a new suit of clothes for their city.
They want respect, status and tourists - and they are talking about ways to get them. But now it's time for city officials to start asking them: What's it worth to you?
In Norfolk, which was at a similar crossroads 15 years ago, citizens have answered with a resounding $20 million in private funds for several projects, including the Harrison Opera House, the Botanical Gardens and Nauticus. The city spent more than $100 million in public funds for those projects.
Portsmouth is in its infancy when it comes to raising private funds for public projects. The city did get more than $1 million in private money for its new Children's Museum of Virginia, but a tougher test may come when the city begins more unfamiliar projects.
When Norfolk developed its vision plan 15 years ago, the city was much like Portsmouth: poor and decaying with nowhere to grow.
Downtown was dead, relegated to the downtrodden. Most Norfolk residents avoided the area unless they lived there.
But city officials wanted to capitalize on Norfolk's waterfront and its geographic position as the region's center.
Norfolk commissioned a consultant to help the city develop plans for its downtown. In Portsmouth, the City Council hired the same consultant to help design a vision city officials can sell to private developers.
In the 1980s, Norfolk officials hoped to bring both residents and tourists downtown.
They started by holding a small festival on its waterfront called Harborfest. The first year, crowds were generally small and scattered. But the fireworks display brought crowds so large that many people ended up parking along Interstate 264 to watch.
Norfolk officials then decided to tackle a public project - Waterside, a downtown mall and restaurant area designed after Baltimore's mall on the Inner Harbor. The city got private financing for the project, which opened in 1983, and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority guaranteed the private loans. The first phase of the project cost nearly $15 million. A second phase completed two years ago brought the total cost to $21.8 million. The city also developed Town Point Park next to Waterside.
People began to come downtown. It started slowly, but the project was successful. The city had also begun tearing down many of the crime-ridden slums in its downtown and began building new high-priced housing.
A $13.5 million expansion to the Chrysler Museum was completed in 1989.
As Norfolk underwent redevelopment, a company that bought a franchise from the Marriott chain decided to build a hotel downtown. The city agreed to build a $15 million convention center next door. It opened in 1991.
With people downtown, city officials began looking toward other public projects. Jacques Cousteau began touting plans in the mid-'80s for building a hands-on museum devoted to the ocean and Cousteau's research. Politics and price sank the project, but city officials decided to build a $52 million museum based on similar themes - it opened this summer as Nauticus.
Norfolk business owners, citizens and officials raised $6 million for Nauticus. Once the private money came through, city officials pledged the land and $40 million in public funds for the center. The city also received $5 million in private funds for a $10 million expansion of its Harrison Opera House, which was completed last fall.
The city picked up the entire $17 million construction tab on Harbor Park under an agreement with the New York Mets baseball franchise.
Bonds - loans given to governmental agencies - financed most of the construction.
Portsmouth's bond rating is slightly below Norfolk's. City Manager V. Wayne Orton is reluctant to borrow a lot of money, but Orton said he is sure the city will be able to fund its top priorities.
``You tell me what you want, and I'll find the money for the projects,'' Orton told the City Council during a recent retreat to review the city's new vision. by CNB