THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604030439
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Allan B. Harvie Jr., a Richmond-based businessman with one gleaming eye on the Hampton Roads Admirals, said Tuesday he will build two ice-skating rinks and a 32-lane bowling alley in Chesapeake's Greenbrier section.
The Harvie Sports Complex - a $6.5 million, 96,000-square-foot entertainment mecca - will include a laser-game room, an arcade center, a nursery and a pro shop.
``There is no other entertainment facility like it in the entire state of Virginia,'' said Harvie, who displayed blueprints of his master plan at a news conference in Greenbrier.
Hampton Roads is ripe for his Ice Palace skating rinks, Harvie said. That is why he opened a portable rink named ``Starship Ice'' at Virginia Beach's Oceanfront and is building a regular rink in York County.
``There are 1.5 million people here and only one small rink,'' said Harvie, speaking of Iceland of Virginia Beach. ``There's certainly a demand for it down here.''
Harvie hopes to entice the Admirals hockey team to practice on his ice. His complex will include a professional team locker room and a weight-training facility.
``That would be very nice,'' said Harvie, who once owned the Richmond Renegades and made no secret of his desire to own the Admirals. ``It would fit in very nicely with what we're doing here.''
Currently, the hockey team, owned by Blake Cullen, practices at Scope in Norfolk and occasionally at Iceland.
Harvie has agreed to pay a Union Carbide pension fund about $875,000 for 7 to 8 acres of land behind Regal Cinemas, according to Goodman Segar Hogan Hoffler, the commercial real-estate company that handled the deal.
Construction on the first rink, a standard National Hockey League-sized facility, will begin within two months and is expected to be completed later this year. The larger rink, bowling alley and other facilities are expected to open in the summer of 1997.
The Harvie Sports Complex will be the newest addition to the Greenbrier corridor, which has experienced an explosion in commercial development. Other newcomers include Regal Cinemas and Circuit City, which will soon be joined by Target Stores, Harris Teeter and scores of other merchants.
Harvie, president of The Adanac Group in Richmond, believes his center will complement existing entertainment and sports facilities in the area.
``We think there's a great need in the community for this,'' said Donald Z. Goldberg, Chesapeake's economic development director. ``We're very pleased.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color icons
by CNB