THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 27, 1996 TAG: 9601270229
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
Fireworks exploded from the giant blue and white cake without a hitch. Gold stars dangled to a backdrop of skyscrapers. The sun shone brightly. And even Vice Mayor Paul R. Riddick, often critical of city initiatives, praised the project as an economic lifeline.
It seemed as if the gods favored the city Friday as hundreds of people gathered downtown to watch the elaborate ceremonies for the symbolic groundbreaking of the $300 million MacArthur Center mall.
It was a day for which city officials had waited more than 30 years. Officials, past and present, were there, from Mayor Paul D. Fraim to Lawrence M. Cox, the head of the redevelopment authority when the land was cleared starting in 1958.
Fraim declared the development ``the single most important project in the history of the city.''
Riddick said ``this will get Norfolk where it needs to be: the No. 1 hub in the region.''
William S. Taubman, executive vice president of the company that bears his family's name and which will develop the mall, said, ``When MacArthur Center opens its door in 1998, it will be the best shopping experience between Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
``This place will become the modern marketplace of Norfolk.''
The ceremony took place in one corner of the vacant 17 acres of parking lots between City Hall Avenue and Scope where the mall will be constructed. The Taubman Co. had set up a giant wooden cake beside a crane and a clear-sided tent erected by the city.
After numerous speeches at noon, roughly a dozen people - council members, and development and company officials - grabbed sledgehammers and pounded five gold stars into holes in the asphalt parking lot.
The stars were to recognize five-star Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the ``five-star shopping experience'' the new mall is meant to be. Friday was the 116th anniversary of MacArthur's birth.
Then the giant cake behind them exploded with thunderclaps and voluminous smoke. Eight blue Roman candles erupted, showering sparks while the crane drew from the cake five gold stars arranged in a formation.
The crowd cheered.
It was no accident that things went well Friday. The Taubman Co. had spent two months preparing the event. A video producer from Denver coordinated it. The team included a Hollywood set designer, a Florida engineer and a local fireworks company.
The groundbreaking Friday was only symbolic. Actual earth moving will not happen for several months because company officials are still designing the center and fitting it to the property.
General construction should be visible sometime this spring, said a Taubman official. Bulldozers and heavy equipment should be working on the site by June, and foundations should be dug by the end of the summer.
Officials are confident the project will succeed based on two similar malls. The Taubman Co. opened the Cherry Creek mall in Denver in 1990, and the Columbus City Center in Ohio in 1989. Both are major luxury malls in urban areas, and both have done very well financially.
MacArthur Center will be built on land that was cleared, beginning in 1958, as preparation for a new, more modern city. Lawrence M. Cox, former executive director of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, said it was worth waiting for.
``We didn't have a timetable,'' Cox said. ``People forget this city was not built overnight, and it can't be rebuilt overnight,'' Cox said.
He remembered what the site was like before it was cleared.
``It was a conglomeration of shops, small office buildings, hardware stores, food brokerage houses with residences mixed in among them,'' Cox said. The mixture of low-rise brick and wooden buildings was run down, he said, and stood in the path of a more modern city.
The City Council has split at times over aspects of the mall, most recently in December when three council members initially opposed the relocation, at city expense, of a fire station to make way for the mall.
But the council was in harmony Friday. Riddick described how he envisioned young people from surrounding neighborhoods walking to part-time jobs at the mall, and then to classes at the new branch of Tidewater Community College on Granby Street.
``You are now solidifying the future of all those children who are growing up in this city,'' Riddick said.
The vice mayor also heaped praise on Robert B. Smithwick and Councilman Mason C. Andrews - the economic development director and the longtime councilman and former mayor - for having nurtured the project from its early and most fragile days. ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Development chief Robert B. Smithwick, a key to the project, spoke
with the pyrotechnic cake and MacArthur Memorial behind him.
THE MALL: A Q&A
When is the mall scheduled to open?
Spring 1998.
Who is the developer and owner?
The Taubman Co., a Michigan-based development company with 20
shopping malls across the country, including several in urban or
downtown locations.
What stores will be in the mall?
Nordstrom, Dillard's and possibly a third anchor department
store. Also: more than 100 specialty shops.
When will we see construction work on the site?
Sometime this spring.
What will the mall look like?
Right now, the design shows a three-level mall flanked by parking
garages with two department stores opening onto Monticello Avenue.
How much money is the city putting into the mall?
About $100 million, most of it loans. This includes $13 million
on roads and sewer lines, $33 million in federal money to build
Nordstrom, and $50 million in revenue bonds to build the parking
garages. The city is also to spend $6.5 million to move a fire
station and training center.
Why is the city doing this?
The city estimates it will gain $40 million in taxes over the
next 10 years, plus 3,000 permanent jobs, and spark a continued
revitalization of downtown. The mall is also meant to coordinate
with job training programs at the new, Granby Street campus of
Tidewater Community College.
Is the mall a sure thing now?
Yes, say city and company officials. Although physical
construction work is still a few months away, the project is now
underway.
KEYWORDS: MACARTHUR CENTER MALL DOWNTOWN GROUNDBREAKING by CNB