THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230347
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: 80 lines
Environmentalists, history buffs and Civil War re-enactors on the Peninsula have a little less to complain about.
Mall Properties Inc., which wants to build an upscale mall in Newport News, plans to modify its location and scale down the project, said an executive vice president Wednesday.
It will move the mall farther away from Endview Plantation, a historic building on the property near the proposed mall in northern Newport News. The developer will also reduce the size of its 105-acre project by 10 acres, said Richard P. Steinberg, executive vice president for Mall Properties. It also is calling for the clean-up and preservation of a creek that runs through the development site.
The changes were announced Wednesday and artistic renderings of the project were made public.
The shopping center will cost between $75 million and $100 million, and hold three anchor stores. Construction of the first phase will be completed in 1999, Steinberg said.
No anchor stores have been signed yet but the developer is talking to four prospective anchors, Steinberg said. He hopes to have them signed by summer. Mall Properties also hired Boston-based Arrowstreet Inc. to design the shopping center.
Steinberg does not foresee his project as a direct competitor to Norfolk's MacArthur Center, another proposed upscale mall that will be anchored by Nordstrom and Dillard's.
``Everybody may go there but not everyone can shop there,'' Steinberg said about MacArthur Center. ``The typical Tidewater shopper may not shop there regularly.''
Mall Properties will target primarily Williamsburg and Gloucester, an area that should see almost 30 percent increase in population until 2004, Steinberg said.
``We own Coliseum (Mall) so we're not looking to kill Coliseum,'' he said.
The proposed Endview Mall has been roiling in controversy since May 1996 when Mall Properties announced its intention to build farther north of Coliseum Mall.
A band of 14 residents quickly filed a lawsuit against the city of Newport News to prevent the mall's development. The city didn't consider the environmental and historical consequences, the lawsuit alleged.
The group, called ``Citizens to Save Endview,'' started a Web site, hired a Washington-based publicist and a Pennsylvania lawyer as well as the usual passing of fliers and buttons to raise support.
It was revealed later that a rival mall owner, Crown American Realty Trust, owner of the Patrick Henry Mall in Newport News, was funding the so-called grass-roots movement. Crown American apologized publicly, in various full-page newspaper ads, for not revealing its opposition to the Endview Mall earlier.
Currently, the city and the citizens group are waiting for a court date, said Paul Miller, director of the Newport News planning and development department. But Mall Properties officials aren't involved in that lawsuit and don't foresee any impediments to its schedule, they said.
Under the terms of the agreement signed last May, Mall Properties will pay the city of Newport News $10,000 per month for the next 18 months. Payments will be applied to the purchase of the property.
Mall Properties paid Newport News $25,000 per month under the first six-month option. The money was retained by the Newport News Economic Development Authority. The developer also has the right to exercise a third option of $10,000 per month for six months, to be retained by the economic development authority.
The options are necessary for Mall Properties to acquire the land and financing in stages while proceeding with plans to sign tenants and anchor stores, Steinberg said.
The revised site plan, approved by the economic development authority, will meet all federal, state and local environmental regulations for water quality, storm water management and wetlands protection, he said. No special permits or variances will be required.
Mall Properties will also be responsible for improvements to the property such as construction of roads, storm drainage and sewer systems.
Due to the revised site plans, Mall Properties will buy five acres more than originally agreed, approximately 105 acres. But it will develop five acres less on site, or 95 acres total. ILLUSTRATION: Map
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