THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Norfolk City Council votes tonight on funding removal of Fire Station No. 1 from City Hall Avenue to nearby Downtown Plaza. A positive vote would set the stage for construction of the $300 million MacArthur Center regional shopping mall on the city's long-vacant 17-acre urban-renewal site.
A year ago, Council voted 7-0 to approve the three-story mall and committed the city to $97 million in project-linked funding. The $97 million would be provided by:
$32,815,00 Section 108 federal Housing and Urban Development loan for construction of the Nordstrom department store;
$12,847,050 in municipal general-obligation bonds for site work and public improvements;
$50,900,000 in parking-revenue bonds for garages (4,400 parking spaces);
$690,000 in water-revenue bonds.
Moving Fire Station No. 1 would shift the station's fire-training component to Thole Street and raise the city's investment in the mall project by $6.2 million.
City Hall says Fire Station No. 1 would have had to be replaced within the near future even without the redesign of the mall to ensure adequate customer parking. City Hall Avenue traffic is projected to thicken greatly after MacArthur Center's opening, expected in 1998. Increased traffic would complicate movement by fire and emergency vehicles. City Hall also says advances in fire-fighting and emergency-medical services are making the 20-year-old structure obsolete. Downtown Plaza would provide a better site.
In any event, Fire Station No. 1 must go. That has caused some Norfolk residents to fear the city's involvement in MacArthur Center could burden taxpayers instead of leading to the net gain in tax revenue that the city expects. However understandable their concern, the city's commitment to MacArthur Mall is firm and the fire station is in the way. Moving it sooner rather than later would lift an impediment to the enterprise, into which the Taubman Company is prepared to invest $200 million.
Taubman develops, leases and operates highly productive regional and super-regional shopping centers from Connecticut to California. Its track record argues that Norfolk could have no better partner than Taubman for MacArthur Center.
For many reasons, MacArthur Center as planned is a credible venture for the city and Taubman. Hampton Roads - with 1.5 million people, the 27th-largest U.S. metropolitan area - lacks a regional shopping center. Downtown Norfolk is at the heart of the region. Major highways converge upon it. More than a million people live within a 25-minute drive of the downtown, to which 40,000 commute to work each weekday.
The annual income of 45 percent of Hampton Roads households exceeds $35,000 a year. Two-thirds of the region's 874,100 employees are in white-collar jobs. Yet the area is underserved by upscale merchandisers. MacArthur Center's projected three anchor stores - two, Nordstrom and Dillard's, have signed on - and 100-plus specialty retailers would do much to close the gap.
Fire Station No. 1 was within the bounds of the mall-site plan Council approved last year. Council also agreed at that time to $97 million in funding for the center.
City Council's vote tonight would add $6.2 million to the municipal capital-improvements budget. That sum would not unduly increase Norfolk's intended mall-linked investment. Approval of the amendment is an essential step toward bringing the mall and its 3,000 permanent jobs a reality. Council should take that step. by CNB