THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 11, 1996 TAG: 9603090318
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Talk of the Town
TYPE: Opinion
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Hampton Roads' office vacancy rate might tighten as the consolidating Navy sends more units to Tidewater.
Current plans show incoming units will require 1.1 million more square feet of administrative space than the Norfolk Naval Base has available, according to estimates prepared for Rear Adm. Robert S. Cole, the base commander.
If those units spill into private buildings off the base, it could squeeze vacancy rates and encourage a new wave of office construction in the metropolitan area.
Although unused or partly used buildings are on base, more than a dozen of the oldest structures are on the demolition list. Navy planners are grappling with the issue of building anew, perhaps on base, or leasing private office space.
Last fall, the Coast Guard took the latter route and moved its Maintenance & Logistics Command Atlantic headquarters staff into 91,800 square feet of the Main Street Tower in downtown Norfolk.
While the Coast Guard's move took a large chunk of downtown's surplus property off the market, incoming Navy units could absorb two-thirds of the empty office space in every Peninsula and southside city.
The Society of Office and Industrial Realtors' fall survey found 1.82 million square feet of vacant Class A and Class B office space on the Peninsula and in South Hampton Roads. Tidewater's A and B office space totals 16.3 million square feet.
Navy units coming to Tidewater also will require 857,000 square feet of warehousing beyond what is now on the base as well as 43,000 square feet of miscellaneous space.
Medical mergers: Riverside Health System of Newport News might welcome merger with hospital powerhouse Columbia/HCA Healthcare of Nashville.
``We want to be in a good position three or four or five years down the road. Whether that means Sentara or Columbia/HCA or another health-care company, we will be considering them,'' said Riverside CEO Nelson L. Lew St. Clair.
Norfolk-based Sentara Health System spokeswoman Deborah Myers said Sentara has talked merger with Riverside. Sentara, she said, plans ``to keep the lines of communication open as we assess the community's needs.''
Bank loans: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said small business lending hasn't been cut by bank mergers. The N.Y. Fed compared 180 banks that merged with similar banks that didn't merge.
The average ratio of loans to small businesses compared with a bank's assets rose to 8.5 percent in June 1995 from 8.3 percent in June 1993 for the group of newly merged banks, but fell to 6.9 percent from 7.4 percent in the same period for banks not involved in mergers. by CNB