THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610100353
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 98 lines
The Texas company that has made Cape Charles the center of big plans for more than two decades has agreed to sell nearly 2,000 acres around the Eastern Shore town to a Virginia Beach developer.
Brown & Root Inc., the Houston-based engineering and construction firm, agreed on Sept. 20 to sell its property to Baymark Construction Corp., Baymark president Richard Foster said Wednesday.
The multimillion-dollar deal will set into motion plans for a retirement development that Brown & Root proposed eight years ago but never made significant strides toward building.
It also ends 22 years of waiting for the residents of Cape Charles, who have wondered what Brown & Root would do with the property since the company bought it in 1974 for an offshore drilling base.
Residents' attitudes toward Brown & Root's presence have ranged from antagonism and distrust to the feeling that major development is the best hope for a dying town.
Brown & Root paid $5 million for the 2,000 acres to a New York woman who had inherited the property. The company wanted to build a plant to manufacture offshore oil-drilling platforms.
But the lack of oil, and gas strikes along the East Coast, forced the Texas company to abandon its plan and its promise of 2,000 jobs in 1979.
Nine years later, it proposed a retirement community on the parcel with up to 3,000 housing units, two golf courses and a marina.
Foster, the new owner, has his own vision for the property.
He wants to build an ``adult community,'' or a retirement complex, similar to a 300-unit community called Coastal Green that he's proposed in Virginia Beach. That project has aroused controversy because it would be below the city's ``green line,'' which has restricted development in the lower, rural half of Virginia Beach.
Another part of Foster's Cape Charles plan includes setting aside space for people interested in building a second or vacation home.
And he wants to build two championship, signature golf courses designed by companies connected to Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus - a 36-hole attraction to draw people to Cape Charles.
``I want Cape Charles to be the center of town,'' he said. ``And I want to make it a viable town.''
The sale closes in six months, which is when construction on the golf courses should begin, Foster said. That time frame gives him a chance to read and evaluate all the environmental studies, paperwork and details that Brown & Root are sharing with him from their files.
But he's already moving things along.
He hired a helicopter Tuesday to take representatives of the golf course design companies on an aerial tour of the property. Within 10 days, he expects a plan from them for the best layout for the courses.
He also met with the Cape Charles City Council on Tuesday night to inform them of the deal and discuss ideas with them.
The parcel to be sold to Baymark is 1,846 acres. Brown & Root sold 50 acres of its 2,000-acre block to Northampton County for an ecology park in 1995, and the county has an option to buy 104 more acres, said Leo Weinberg, Brown & Root's project manager.
Foster declined to discuss the terms of the deal with Brown & Root.
Foster, a Virginia Beach native, began showing interest in Cape Charles about a year ago. Some residents, having heard his reputation for quality residential development, contacted him and invited him to look at the town and the surrounding area.
It came at a time when he was discouraged from moving forward with some development proposals in Virginia Beach, Foster said. So he thought he'd check out what the Eastern Shore had to offer.
Around the same time, he met a Virginia Beach zoning lawyer who represented Brown & Root, who hooked him up with the company.
``I really wasn't interested at the time,'' Foster said. ``I met them and this thing evolved.''
He decided that he wanted to make a difference.
``The town is declining, obviously,'' Foster said. ``I want to be a part of helping that community come back and restore what they're looking for. I think we're on the same page. It's a nice town, and it could be that again.''
Foster said he plans to attend town meetings and participate in community forums to get residents' input in what the 2,000 acres should look like and become.
Residents had mixed reactions Wednesday to the news of the sale.
Lyn Wyatt, an artist and president of the historical society, expressed fear that development might take over again.
``We have mixed emotions about any sort of development,'' he said. ``The idea of tract housing, nail-clad, vinyl housing, scares me because we have such a special place here.''
He worries that the limited water supply may be exhausted and that environmental concerns may not enter the development equation. But he believes Cape Charles needs some sort of help and hopes that selective, balanced development that's worthy of the setting becomes the call.
Kim Starr Wendell, who owns Chesapeake Realty, hopes the development will help revive some of the old glories once known to Cape Charles. The Eastern Shore town, on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, was once a busy stopover for tourists and visitors, with a railroad stop and a ferry landing, she said.
``Cape Charles was a destination for people, and I think that's what we're going to see with this,'' Wendell said. ILLUSTRATION: Color map
Area shown: Cape Charles
KEYWORDS: BROWN & ROOT EASTERN SHORE DEVELOPMENT by CNB