THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608100089
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 54 lines
The city will launch a new study to determine whether tripling the size and the scope of the Pavilion Convention Center and using it as a centerpiece for a park-like commercial corridor to the Oceanfront is financially feasible.
Such a study would be due in early November, James B. Ricketts, director of the city's Department of Convention and Visitor Development, told members of the Resort Area Advisory Commission Thursday.
It will provide a detailed cost-benefit analysis of expanding the convention center, Ricketts said.
The Pavilion was outdated almost from the moment it opened in 1980 because of limited meeting space and a limited capacity to feed large gatherings.
Resort planners, including members of the advisory commission, have made the Pavilion expansion a top priority item on a list of ``must'' projects. They see it as a tool to spur the growth in tourism in Virginia Beach during early spring and late fall months, when activity at resort hotels, restaurants and shops becomes virtually dormant.
It joins golf course development, the new amphitheater and expansion of the Virginia Marine Science Museum as top priority projects.
Several years ago resort planners said the Pavilion expansion would cost $35 million, but the price tag has since risen to more than $100 million, a sum that would include development of a six-block stretch between 19th and 20th streets to Pacific Avenue.
A Tourism Growth Investment Fund, launched by the City Council in 1993 was to be tapped to pay for the Pavilion and other projects. The $35-million earmarked for the convention center expansion was diverted by the council to help pay off the city's share of the $102 million Hurricane Protection plan, a project designed to protect the resort and North End beaches from major ocean-borne storms.
The federal government is to pay 65 percent of the project, which is to begin in October. The city is responsible for the rest.
The fund diversion has bumped the Pavilion expansion project to the back burner, but Ricketts and members of the advisory commission are trying to revive it.
City finance director Patty Phillips threw some cold water on the plans Thursday, when she pointed out that the TGIF revenues, which are expected to swell to $10 million by 1997, are committed to other projects, including the hurricane protection plan and the marine science museum expansion.
Phillips suggested that resort planners wait until the Pavilion study is completed before seeking alternative methods to finance an expansion of the finance plan.
TGIF is a revenue pool formed to finance resort improvements. It is fed by special taxes on hotel and restaurant sales and amusement and resort franchise fees and is expected to grow each year as the tourism industry expands.
KEYWORDS: EXPANSION PAVILION CENTER by CNB