THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510050176
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 160 lines
ONE WAY OR another, change is coming to the seaside end of Laskin Road and resort planners want to make sure the final product is a big improvement, financially and aesthetically.
What they have in mind - and the plan is still in the dream stage - is a makeover that would create an upscale 200,000-square-foot commercial center called Ocean Square. It would feature a landscaped pedestrian promenade that would extend from the southern tip of Little Neck Creek to the Oceanfront.
Approaching traffic would be diverted a block north and south to unobtrusive parking garages, where visitors could leave their cars and walk, bike or ride golf cart-like trams to the shops and restaurants.
Existing property owners would be asked to renovate and expand their storefronts to conform to predetermined design standards, thus enabling them to demand higher rents from prospective merchants.
The city, meanwhile, would do as it has done on Atlantic Avenue for the past 10 years: create an artfully designed and uncluttered streetscape abutting the shops and opening to the Boardwalk and the beach.
The city's part of the beautification effort would be building one or two parking garages, burying overhead power and telephone lines, widening sidewalks, planting trees and shrubs, and adding street furniture, lighting fixtures and signs.
Basically, the public-private effort would be made to upgrade a largely drab and unattractive existing commercial area; provide year-round shopping for tourists as well as a core of local customers and add millions in tax revenues to the city's coffers.
Proponents say the project has the potential of rivaling the likes of Merchants Square in Williamsburg; Waterside in Norfolk; or the upscale resort commercial centers in Charleston, S.C.; Cape May, N.J.; Carmel, Calif., or Aspen, Colo.
Chief among them is architect Roger Newill, chairman of the Resort Area Advisory Commission, a citizens panel charged with overseeing resort improvements and events.
The Ocean Square concept first was presented by Newill to advisory commission members two months ago. He said he saw it as a way to dovetail future renovation work on Laskin Road - a main northern gateway to the resort - with other major Oceanfront projects that are beginning to unfold.
These include:
A proposed retail and entertainment complex on a 12-acre site at Baltic Avenue and Laskin Road. The project was unveiled several years ago under the name of Laskin Village and developers said it would cost an estimated $46 million to build. Since then plans have been altered a bit and now include a new supermarket, more shops and possibly a grouping of movie theaters.
A proposal by the state Department of Transportation to widen Laskin Road from Great Neck Road to Pacific Avenue to six lanes, removing the feeder lanes. State engineers say the project is still two years away and that public suggestions would be incorporated into its final plans.
An extension of the city's Resort Streetscape program. A consultant is now looking at ways to dress up the entire length of Pacific Avenue, after the last phase of the Atlantic Avenue streetscape is completed next spring.
Newill's Ocean Square plan would provide a temporary solution to a sticky problem: turning a vacant, city-owned lot on the oceanfront at Atlantic Avenue and Laskin Road into another grassy, landscaped vista to the sea.
The tract was purchased for $3.5 million in a 1988 bankruptcy sale. The city's Development Authority saw it as a potential site for a major convention hotel. Since then, however, it has been used as an oceanfront parking lot, because the authority could find no buyers.
This year the development authority decided to turn the property over to the city, which in turn used it as a parking lot to help make the monthly $30,000 mortgage payments.
Newill suggests converting the lot into another seaside park until a commercial buyer comes along.
Farther west along Baltic Avenue, the Laskin Village project has undergone a change in developers since it was first introduced. The new principals and city economic development officials have remained mum on any changes in the project design or its potential retail uses.
An announcement is expected soon, said Newill, who has insisted from the start that the complex - no matter what it ends up being - should blend with the adjacent Laskin Road commercial corridor.
As for the plans to widen Laskin Road, Newill and other resort planners are trying to persuade state engineers to consider scaling down the project near the Oceanfront and allowing the city to add some cosmetic touches such as landscaping, signs and lighting.
Although Newill's Ocean Square plan is in its infancy, the concept appeals to some knowledgeable local observers.
One is Lloyd Tarbutton, head of Tarbutton Associates, a Virginia Beach commercial and real estate marketing and development company.
``I think what Virginia Beach needs is to get DC - define and create,'' says Tarbutton, also a lecturer and marketing guru. ``They need to define a goal, then create - a city beautiful, create a convention hotel and create shopping.''
Take Myrtle Beach, S.C., for instance, he says.
``Fourteen years ago Myrtle Beach set out with a plan to become the golfing capital of the East Coast - and they took business away from Pinehurst. Now they have over 70 golf courses and they're planning to get 100.''
A diverse menu of shopping is one way to attract visitors to the Beach year-round, he adds, because nationwide surveys have shown that shopping is a major tourist diversion.
Jon Sedel, who, with brother Bruce, has developed La Promenade, an upscale shopping center on Laskin Road west of Hilltop, sees the wisdom of creating a pedestrian friendly shopping plaza near the beach.
``No question about it, it makes a lot of sense,'' he said. ``What we did at La Promenade was to create a streetside effect - a meandering effect, like a European village.''
The Sedels' retail creation is exactly what Newill has in mind for the eastern terminus of Laskin Road.
``I wish they could have put it there,'' Newill told fellow advisory commission members recently.
Laskin Road improvements should be tied to future facelifts for 17th and 21st streets and to the widening of Baltic and Arctic avenues, Sedel said. The Baltic-Arctic improvements would permit better north-south traffic flows.
Upgrading of the eastern end of Laskin Road should not be done to create more retail outlets, Sedel insists. ``Frankly, we don't need more shops. That has to be user-driven. It should complement what's already out there.''
The city should improve the infrastructure - meaning new sewer and water lines, new lighting and paving - to encourage Laskin Road property owners to upgrade their storefronts, he said.
Encouragement of sorts for Newill's plan comes from another quarter - city Planning Director Robert J. Scott, who sees the need for a wider view of Oceanfront redevelopment.
While Scott has seen Newill's basic sketches, the two men have yet to discuss the commercial concept at length.
``One thing I like about the thinking,'' said Scott. ``It got beyond looking at one little problem at a time - it sees the big picture, in other words.''
Plans for Laskin Road improvements are nothing new, both Scott and Newill concede.
Ten years ago the Resort Area Advisory Commission invited the Urban Land Institute, a Washington-based think tank, to Virginia Beach to size up the resort area and recommend changes.
The rejuvenation of the Laskin Road seaside commercial district happened to be one of the recommendations, said Newill.
Added Scott, ``As I look back, no one has been totally comfortable with Laskin Road. There have been ideas over the years to divert traffic from Laskin Road and it goes without saying that none of the plans have come to fruition.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
An aerial view of the area surrounding 31st Street. The new district
would feature a landscaped pedestrian promenade that would extend
from the southern tip of Little Neck Creek to the Oceanfront.
Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
A top proponent of the plan is architect Roger Newill, who is
chairman of the Resort Area Advisory Commission.
Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Lloyd Tarbutton, head of Tarbutton Associates, a commercial and real
estate marketing and development company, favors the plan.
Staff graphic/Map by Robert Voros
Redesigning 31st Street
For copy of graphic, see microfilm.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH OCEANFRONT by CNB