DATE: Thursday, March 13, 1997              TAG: 9703130379

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: HAMPTON                           LENGTH:   56 lines

ENTERTAINMENT CENTER ENDORSED

The city of Hampton and the Coliseum Central Business Improvement District are trying to shore up the competitiveness of the Coliseum Mall area by letting consumers play while they shop.

A plan to build a 22-acre outdoor urban entertainment center near Interstate-64 and Mercury Boulevard was endorsed Wednesday by the Coliseum Central Business Improvement District, a group of commercial property owners devoted to improving the Coliseum retail area.

It is part of 20-year plan for bolstering the business district along Mercury Boulevard from Aberdeen Road to Armistead Avenue in Hampton, which incorporates Coliseum Mall.

The project designers envision letting mountain bike shoppers test different types of bikes on a manmade mountain. Sporting goods stores would give shoppers a chance to pitch a tent on the hill to test it. Fishermen would cast lines into a lake on the site. Product demonstrations of sports and recreation equipment would occur regularly.

Preliminary plans call for restaurant pods centered around an outdoor-sports theme. There would be live entertainment and concerts in an outdoor amphitheater. Game rooms for high-tech entertainment such as Sega are included in the artistic drawings.

On Wednesday, Economics Research Associates, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm, presented the Hampton City Council with a feasibility study for the outdoor urban entertainment center along with its endorsement to develop it. The firm has done similar work for Walt Disney World and Six Flags. Also working on the plan is McBride Co., a design and planning firm hired by the city to design the Hampton project.

The feasibility study projects that an urban entertainment center in Hampton would attract 1.9 million visitors annually, with 90 percent of those visitors coming from outside the city. The complex would generate more than $48 million in sales and $2.2 million in net tax revenues a year, according to the report. The investment of the developer and private tenantsin the project will exceed $70 million.

Norfolk-based developer Robert Brown has been negotiating the purchase of private land with landowners on CC Spaulding Drive and the Little Zion Church on Queen Street. The property would be necessary for the completion of the urban entertainment center and adjacent retail development.

The city has not committed to developing the concept yet. In order to move forward, the City Council would need to approve the idea and establish guidelines to select a developer for the project, said Kathy Grook, Hampton retail development manager.

When completed, the entertainment complex and adjacent retail center will generate more than $110 million of private investment and almost $5 million in net tax revenues. The city will contribute between $9.6 million and $11.1 million toward infrastructure, or road, improvements or construction. ILLUSTRATION: Preliminary plans call for restaurant pods centered on

an outdoor sports theme. The plan still needs to be approved by the

City Council.

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