THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602030420
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 187 lines
Downtowns are in vogue again and everyone seems to want one. Or, at least, they want to spruce them up.
Norfolk is rolling out a $280 million upscale mall to anchor its downtown revitalization efforts. Virginia Beach calls its proposed downtown ``the Central Business District.'' Newport News recently approved a $6 million initiative to beautify its central square. And Portsmouth and Suffolk have grand plans to pump vitality back into their commercial cores.
``This is not a phenomenon just going on in Hampton Roads,'' said Cathy Coleman, executive director of the Downtown Norfolk Council, a civic group interested in promoting downtown Norfolk. ``It's virtually across the world.''
Hampton Roads cities are rediscovering their downtowns. Many argue that the movement isn't new, that cities like Portsmouth, Hampton and Norfolk have harbored that sentiment for years. But renewed interest in a central meeting place is garnering more public attention due to the proliferation of cafes, coffee houses, ``chat groups'' on the Internet and a return to the basics. People want to belong to a community. And that means having a downtown.
Downtown traditionally formed the only community that people knew, Coleman said.
``From a historical perspective, downtown was all there was,'' she said. ``Downtown was where everybody did business, where everyone shopped, where people lived, where all commerce took place.''
Towns like Suffolk thrived and centered around their downtown activity. The introduction of the automobile, construction of the freeway system and the emergence of the suburban mall all coalesced to siphon off the vitality of downtown.
People hope and want to recapture some of that feeling.
``It's almost like getting back to your roots,'' said Arden Pfeiffer, owner of Pfeiffer's Books & Cards in downtown Portsmouth. ``It's getting back to the way it was before. It almost seems like people are searching for that central spot to go.''
Virginia Beach understands that.
Merchants, lawyers, residents, bankers, real estate brokers and others have rallied behind the idea of developing a central business district in the Pembroke area of the state's largest city.
City officials moved the the project forward substantially last month by adopting new zoning that allows for high rises and other more urban-style buildings.
The actions by the largely suburban Virginia Beach proves that sprawling Hampton Roads is maturing as a metropolitan area, said Burrell Saunders, president of the Central Business District Association and a partner at CMSS Architects.
Cities like Atlanta, Los Angeles and Houston support diverse and scattered, satellite ``downtowns'' in surrounding suburbs, he said. Around Washington, D.C., neighborhoods like Du Pont Circle, Georgetown and Old Towne Alexandria form a nucleus of shops, restaurants and people that encourages congregation.
Downtowns in each of the region's seven core cities could also be ``satellites.''
``I think there's an ongoing effort that has occurred since the beginning of time for people to plan the communities they live in,'' Saunders said. ``You're seeing the growth of the Hampton Roads area. The communities are taking a pro-active stance in how their city evolves. So they're putting time into thinking about their public areas, their core areas and how they present themselves aesthetically.
``I think it's very important to the community's image and how we think and feel about the place we live in and how we project our image to others who visit us,'' he added.
That's exactly what sparked Newport News's $6 million Downtown Partnership Initiative.
Navy officials approached the city years ago about improving its downtown so that its Navy personnel, stationed there to advise the building and repair at the shipyard, would feel more at home.
At the beginning of the year, that idea became a reality.
Newport News plans to acquire and demolish 30 unused or obsolete buildings, beef up police bicycle patrols, upgrade street lighting and fix the streets. The city also wants to build a $8.5 million parking garage, said Paul Miller, director of planning and development.
Like other plans hatched to redevelop downtown, this one involves a public-private partnership.
``We'd all agreed that the we've got a long-term program of reinvigorating and redeveloping downtown,'' Miller said. ``The Navy's interest was the spark plug from which we could develop a program.''
The Navy pitched in $2 million towards the program, matched by both the state and Newport News Shipbuilding for the city's $6 million beautification fund.
And that's the way it's supposed to work, said Suffolk's Tom Waller, economic development director.
``If it's to be successful it has to be a real partnership between the public and private sector,'' Waller said.
At stake for the private sector is a return on their investment, whether it be financial or personal, as business people or residents. The public sector to helps the private sector fulfill those investments by building or improving roads or other infrastructure.
That's been Norfolk's approach.
Its effort was rooted in the post World War II era that produced federal legislation making urban renewal programs possible, said Jim Gildea, who worked for the city of Norfolk for 22 years before recently joining Portsmouth as its director of planning.
Creation of major thoroughfares like Waterside Drive, Brambleton Avenue and St. Paul's Boulevard allowed companies and business people to participate in downtown's redevelopment.
Norfolk has stimulated growth by joint arrangements between city of Norfolk and private investors.
``MacArthur Center is a joint venture. The ball park (Harbor Park), Nauticus, none of that could've come about without a partnership between the city of Norfolk and private investors,'' Waller said.
Other projects like Waterside Festival Marketplace and the Norfolk Waterside Marriott and Convention Center show the variety of joint ventures between the city and corporate types.
By keeping the downtown alive, or viable, ``it'll keep businesses here and stimulate other businesses,'' Waller said.
Hampton, Norfolk, Suffolk and Portsmouth have been improving their downtown areas continually for years. Hampton has improved its waterfront area near the Virginia Air and Space Museum to attract visitors and residents alike. Suffolk hopes the construction of a new court building this spring will stimulate some growth there.
The key is to retain property values and not let buildings or other property decay, something that historic preservation societies have advocated for years.
``If property values start to deteriorate, deterioration begets other deterioration,'' Waller said. ``You either pay for it now or you pay for it later, because those structures need to be demolished.''
Degeneration of downtown spells trouble not only for existing firms for future growth.
``It defines a city to visitors, to prospective new businesses,'' said Norfolk's Coleman. ``If you think of a heart and if the heart goes bad, it doesn't take long for the rest of the body to go bad. Look at Bridgeport, Conn., or Newark (New Jersey). The cities as a whole have suffered. They've lost businesses and have had trouble attracting new businesses.''
But cities like Chesapeake and Virginia Beach face a different task: to create a downtown.
``Newer cities that wound up as a merger of surrounding counties have quite a challenge,'' Waller said. Virginia Beach's downtown, for instance, was its oceanfront but that changed with the annexation of Princess Anne County, he pointed out.
``I think it's possible (to create a downtown),'' Waller said. ``It involves investment and it's going to take time to do it.''
But the effort is well worth the result, say many.
``The reason it's important is that downtowns are really the heart of a community,'' Coleman. ``It's what defines a region often times. It's a city's window onto the world.''
Adds Pfeiffer: ``We've floundered for years about who we are and what we are as a people and a society and a culture. I think were finding it now in our own little niches of community involvement and our own little community responsibilities. Because who's responsible for the places we go and the things we do? It comes down to us and now we're trying to take that back in some sense. I think downtowns offer that closeness, that camaraderie.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
NORFOLK
Norfolk has nurtured its downtown for years and hopes it culminates
with the $280 million MacArthur Center.
PORTSMOUTH
Portsmouth hopes to recreate a sense of community with the ferry,
little boutiques and restaurants in its Old Towne.
VIRGINIA BEACH
The commercial oceanfront strip formed the city's downtown before
annexation of Princess Anne County.
HAMPTON
Hampton's waterfront downtown has been improved continually.
NEWPORT NEWS
Thanks to the Navy's prodding, the city will embark on a $6 million
renovation.
by CNB