THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604210064
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HATTERAS VILLAGE LENGTH: Long : 146 lines
When Allen Burrus was a boy, he hunted pheasants and duck in the marsh grasses and around the barren sand hills on the southern tip of Hatteras Island.
A few fishermen visited his sleepy village each summer to cast their lines into the surf or slip boats along the shallow sounds. And state ferries carried a maximum of 200 cars a day across Hatteras Inlet to isolated Ocracoke Island.
Today, ferry boats transport more than 2,000 vehicles a day during the summer. Anglers, vacationers and beach-goers drive to the end of Hatteras Island by the droves. And the once summer-only tourist season has expanded to an almost year-round endeavor.
To accommodate the additional influx of out-of-towners - and, hopefully, attract even more income to the fishing village - a 72-room Holiday Inn Express will open in a two-story structure across from the ferry docks in July. A local developer is building 20,000 square feet of retail shops, a 100-seat restaurant and 17 three-bedroom multi-family units on the large vacant lot next door. And county officials already have approved plans for a 38-slip marina nearby.
Burrus said more money is being poured into his little hamlet in 1996 than he can remember during any previous year.
``I have mixed feelings about all this development,'' Burrus, 43, said from his family grocery store Friday.
``It's hard to see things change so much. This area was mainly wilderness when I was young. The ferry docks and Coast Guard station were the only things down at that end.
``But these additions will certainly bring more business to town,'' said Burrus. ``All the building is being done tastefully. They're not trying to make us like Avon or Kill Devil Hills' French Fry alley, at least.
``And they've made a big effort to make everything look good, blend in, and be outside of the residential part of the village.''
Alma Fountain agreed. An employee of the Hatteras ferry boat operations since 1988, she said she's seen a huge increase in traffic over the past few years. From Jan. 1 to April 17 last year, 13,904 vehicles rode the ferry. During that same time period this year, 15,483 cars crossed the inlet. The new development will help take care of - and, probably, increase - the additional visitors.
But since the hotel, buildings and marina all are at the end of N.C. 12 - and not in Hatteras Village itself - they probably won't affect permanent residents too much, she said.
``There's not much room for growth as far as extra houses go in Hatteras anyway,'' Fountain said Friday.
``There's only so much this village can expand. But the way the ferries have been advertising themselves lately, there've been a whole lot more people down here anyway - even without the extra development.
``Now, they'll just have somewhere else to go.''
Bulldozers, cranes, trailers, stacks of cinder blocks, piles of plastic pipe, loads of lumber and mounds of dirt surround the formerly tranquil docks of Hatteras Village. Workers are banging nails and pouring concrete. On Friday, they began erecting the outside walls for the town's newest hotel.
The new Holiday Inn Express at Hatteras Landing Marina is being built by Tidewater Inn Management of Virginia Beach. That same company constructed the Comfort Inn in Buxton five years ago. Those two motels are the only national chain franchise lodgings on Hatteras Island.
Seven other mom-and-pop-style lodging options already exist in Hatteras Village.
``We were real pleased with the inn in Buxton and the business it got. The Outer Banks are a natural extension for our market in Virginia Beach,'' said Tim Stiffler, executive vice president of Tidewater Inn Management, on Friday.
``A lot of our owners go down there anyway. And we know a lot of people from the Hampton Roads area who travel there. Now, people can call a national network and book a room ahead of time instead of trying to remember the names of the local motels.
``Without it even being open yet, people already are booking a lot of rooms at that Hatteras Holiday Inn,'' said Stiffler. ``We're getting a lot of inquiries. There's definitely been more interest in trying to reserve a room in this hotel, even, than we had when we opened the inn in Buxton.''
Stiffler refused to reveal the total cost of the Holiday Inn Express, calling it a ``multimillion-dollar'' investment and saying only that expenses topped $2 million. In addition to a 23,000-gallon outdoor pool and sunbathing deck, the hotel will have 40 regular rooms with a king-size bed or two double beds; 32 suites with a separate living area and sleeper sofa, private balconies or patios; an observation tower and a full-time front desk clerk. Each room will include a microwave and refrigerator. The hotel will be open year-round. And since builders elevated the entire structure 11 feet, even first-floor rooms will have distant views of the ocean and sound.
``We didn't want a prototype, roadside Holiday Inn like you see along I-95,'' Stiffler said. ``We wanted this structure to fit in with the Hatteras Village community. So we convinced the national chain to let us waive the standard development criteria and we're building this hotel in a turn-of-the-century, Coast Guard station look.''
Hatteras Village native Tim Midgett is developing the retail shops, restaurant, multifamily housing complex and marina. His project is slated to include 112 parking places and will encompass about five acres of sand - to the right of the ferry parking lot. Construction probably will start by fall.
The state's ferry operation is also expanding. In December, workers built and opened a retail shop on site that sells sweat shirts, coloring books, coffee cups and other ferry-themed souvenirs. The snack shack got more drink and food machines. About 150 new parking spaces and four additional traffic holding lanes opened last year. By the start of this summer season, a new $100,000 lighting and signal system is scheduled to be on-line at the state-owned facility.
Officials with the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum plan to break ground by fall for a 15,000-square-foot facility in front of the Coast Guard station.
``Hopefully, all this growth will give Hatteras Village a shot in the arm,'' said Hatteras Island Building Inspector Elvin Hooper. ``Most people think, when they've reached the lighthouse at Buxton, that they've hit all Hatteras has to offer. But the economy down there in Hatteras Village could use the boost.
``Sure, it feels different. But we can't survive without the tourist trade now. The whole Outer Banks economy is so dependent on it. If you build more cottages and motel rooms, someone'll come and rent 'em.
``Now, people who are stuck waiting for the ferries will have a place to shop, eat and stay right on site. I think it's a definite asset to the area. It'll give people a reason to stop and spend time in Hatteras Village instead of just riding through and hopping on the ferry.''
Burrus said the new development should especially help Hatteras Village during the off-seasons. This winter, for example, more than a dozen hotels and restaurants that for years had closed shop during the colder months opened in January to cash in on the hundreds of out-of-state anglers who descended on the docks to charter off-shore boats headed for the bluefin tuna blitz.
The giant fish really helped float locals' businesses through the normally dry times.
``We can't handle a whole lot more people here in the summer,'' Burrus said. ``But these new buildings will help attract additional visitors in the colder seasons. And they won't hurt what's already here.
``I see a lot of positive things about this new development,'' said Burrus. ``But I also hate to see change and growth on this end of the island.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
ROBIE RAY
A 72-room Holiday Inn Express, one of several new projects, is going
up across from the ferry docks in Hatteras Village and should be
ready by July.
DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
North Carolina ferries transport more than 2,000 vehicles a day
during the summer. With increased accommodations, that business is
expected to continue year-round.
KEYWORDS: TOURISM by CNB