THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601130136
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
The $93 million hurricane protection project for the resort Oceanfront and the $35 million Virginia Marine Science Museum expansion will eat up most of the Tourism Growth Investment Fund pool for years to come.
And money for a badly needed expansion of the Pavilion Convention Center, estimated in the $80 million range now, will have to come from other sources - state, federal government, business and industry.
That was the sobering news given to members of the Resort Area Advisory Commission Thursday by R. Dean Block, director of the city's Management Services Department and keeper of the municipal books.
TGIF, the fund pool fed by special taxes on hotel and restaurant sales, amusement and franchise fees and earmarked for tourism-related construction projects, took a couple of heavy and unexpected hits this fall, in addition to the two major expenditures, Block said.
One was a $636,000 outlay to design a new interchange at Atlantic and Pacific avenues at 42nd Street, which is the last phase of the Atlantic Avenue Streetscape project.
The second was a $750,000 loan to the Holiday Lights at the Beach program to buy twinkling displays for the Boardwalk and Oceanfront streets.
That left a TGIF fund balance of $857,000 for the current fiscal year, Block said, adding, ``From my perspective, this is not enough. We need a balance of at least a million or so - minimal - so we can weather small problems.''
The good news is TGIF revenues are building up ``as expected'' and should total about $8 or $9 million this year and provide a year-end balance of $1 million or more.
More good news is that once the marine science project is completed and other resort amenities - such as the $17-million amphitheater - are completed, more tourism revenue will flow into the TGIF pool, making it grow at a faster rate than it has in its first two or three years of existence, Block said.
The hurricane protection plan, a project more than 25 years in the making and designed to shield the Oceanfront from Rudee Inlet to Fort Story from major storm damage, actually was an unanticipated expense of big proportions. It usurped TGIF funds earmarked by the Resort Area Advisory Commission for the Pavilion Convention Center.
Although generally well received by the resort business community because it would provide an expanded Boardwalk, new seawall from 40th to 58th streets and improved dune line from 58th to 89th streets, the storm protection plan would require substantial sums to pay off the city's share of the federally sponsored project.
``We anticipate the annual costs at $6.5 million for debt (retirement), operations and maintenance,'' Block told commission members. The marine science museum will occupy another large annual chunk to pay off the debt for its expansion, Block added.
Commission member James H. Capps, a resort innkeeper, said a Pavilion expansion is a dire necessity.
``It's going to be 2005 before we get a convention center (expansion), and we can't wait that long,'' Capps said. ``We can't wait eight to 10 years to remodel this facility.'' by CNB