THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602180014
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
A consultant hired by critics of MacArthur Center tried to cast doubt on the viability of the planned $300 million downtown shopping mall Saturday.
``I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole,'' said Paul G. Vogel, president of Realty Development Research Inc. of Chicago.
Hampton Roads, Vogel said, is too fragmented geographically to sustain a mall in downtown Norfolk. He said tunnels and bridges that connect the region will prove to be ``choke points'' and ``perceptional barriers'' that discourage travel to MacArthur Center.
``It's not that people won't come; it's that not enough of them will come,'' Vogel said, disputing predictions by developer William S. Taubman that MacArthur Center will draw 30,000 shoppers a day.
Vogel said he has consulted for Taubman on other projects and has not received ``a very clear answer'' from Taubman about the economics of MacArthur Center.
Neither Vogel nor those who hired him would say what he was being paid for his study of MacArthur Center. Vogel said his report is not finished but a summary will be available early this week.
Vogel spoke at a forum sponsored by the organization that hired him - the Norfolk Federation of Business Districts, an umbrella group for merchant associations from outlying areas of the city such as Wards Corner, Military Circle and 35th Street. The federation opposes the $100 million in public money being used to help finance MacArthur Center.
Vogel also predicted that the mall will not meet city expectations for sales or revenues and could draw 25 percent of sales from one of Norfolk's other major shopping centers, Military Circle.
``You've got a tough market here,'' Vogel said, adding that MacArthur Center will make it ``unhealthily competitive.''
Vogel also contended that MacArthur Center would not help the rest of downtown. He advised Norfolk, instead, to concentrate on luring specialty shops to the old retail corridor on Granby Street where they can serve nearby areas such as Freemason and Ghent.
Norfolk's central business district, Vogel also argued, has far fewer employees and tourists than comparable cities with successful downtown malls, such as Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Ind.; and Portland, Ore.
Vogel had other criticisms of MacArthur Center, although he acknowledged that he did not have proof:
The mall would be difficult to fully lease, he said, adding that there was only ``a remote chance'' it ever would get a third department store to complement anchors Nordstrom and Dillard's.
MacArthur Center's opening will cause competitors such as Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach to bring in other upscale anchors, such as Lord & Taylor's, thereby detracting from the uniqueness of the Norfolk mall.
Vogel's assertions drew several challenges at the forum.
Robert Stanton, a Hampton Roads development leader, recalled how Lynnhaven Mall was similarly opposed by competitors and their consultants. Yet now, he said, Lynnhaven is the region's strongest mall.
Robert Smithwick, Norfolk's development director who has guided the MacArthur Center project, derided Vogel's comments.
Smithwick did not attend the forum, but in a telephone interview later he said the consultant did not understand the region.
``He shrunk the region,'' Smithwick said. ``The most important fact is that the region is as big as Nordstrom, Dillard's and Taubman think it is. They believe the region is viable. Who are you and I to question it? And who are the Norfolk Federation of Business Districts to question it?''
Andrew M. Sacks, attorney for the Norfolk Federation of Business Districts, has challenged the city to open the financial and marketing reports on MacArthur Center. But Smithwick has declined, saying, ``We were asked by Nordstrom's not to release it.''
In turn, Smithwick criticized the business federation's hiring of Vogel.
But Vogel said: ``I'm a hired gun, but a credible hired gun.''
KEYWORDS: SHOPPING CENTERS SHOPPING MALLS URBAN RENEWAL
DOWNTOWN by CNB