THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996 TAG: 9607260175
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: IDA KAY JORDAN
LENGTH: 68 lines
What is the city going to do about MidCity Shopping Center?
It's a question that has been around a long time, and nobody seems to have an answer.
The total frustration of business people in the Midtown area over the issue erupted at a Thursday morning meeting to discuss the Vision 2005 plans.
The festering sore that is MidCity has gone from a major showplace several decades ago to a virtually deserted space in the middle of the city.
Business people feel that turning around the area is impossible without some change in the center.
``This is our whole reason for being,'' Midtown Association president Mary Curran said. ``Yet we sit here and say there's nothing we can do about it.''
While a few stores, including the new Farmer Jack's, thrive in the center, large empty spaces and deteriorating buildings frighten many people away from other businesses nearby.
Sentinel Realty of New York City, the owner, has not appeared interested in the property, despite the fact that the traffic count is very high on the streets around it.
``Sentinel isn't interested or they'd do something,'' Leo Shocklin, a Midtown businessman, said Thursday. ``And City Council isn't interested or they'd do something.''
Vision 2005 coordinator Steve Herbert reported to the group that a local developer had tried to buy the property with the idea of redeveloping it to conform to the new plan. But, Herbert said, the developer came home quite discouraged because he saw no way to come to a reasonable agreement to acquire the property.
Members of the Midtown Association have urged the city to condemn and then acquire the property, clear it and sell it to a developer.
City Councilman Cameron Pitts, liaison with Midtown, said the city doesn't have $4.6 million to buy the property under condemnation, nor does it have the money it would cost to clear the site.
``Well, you need to find $4 million and do it,'' Shocklin said. ``That's nothing compared to the tax base you're going to lose if you don't.''
Curran said Midtown probably is going to lose two businesses this month and others later on, ``if we don't move forward.''
``Instead of letting this corporation bully us as they have been doing, we need to bully them,'' she said.
The city drags its feet, Shocklin said.
A codes enforcement sweep of the area did nothing to improve MidCity, members said Thursday, but it cost small business owners a lot of money.
Saunders Early, a former council member and owner of Robbie's Home Store, told Pitts that the city did not seem to hear the association.
``MidCity is the key to this whole plan,'' he said. ``If you're going to let that thing sit over there as it is, nothing will happen.''
Early said that when the Vision 2005 planning started two years ago, he ``had confidence we were going to have a rebirth like 21st Street in Norfolk.''
``But I don't think it will happen now,'' he added.
John Stone of Maryview Hospital, part of the Midtown Association, said some people already have dropped out of the organization because they don't see progress.
``Until something is done about Sentinel's property, they aren't going to participate again,'' he said.
``We've listened too long to too many problems for two years, and we don't see anything happening,'' Curran said. ``We're losing interest.''
That's sad but understandable.
The city must work out some way that it can either take the old shopping center property or force the owners to cooperate.
There's no way Portsmouth can move forward without revitalization at MidCity. by CNB