DATE: Friday, April 18, 1997                TAG: 9704180612

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, staff writer 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   81 lines

DISPUTE LEAVES FUTURE OF COMPLEX IN DOUBT THE BEACH SAYS THE BUILDING, DESTROYED BY FIRE, MUST HAVE MORE LOW-RENT UNITS.

The fire that destroyed Sunstates House, the senior-citizen complex on Shore Drive, has given way to incendiary language that could keep it from being rebuilt.

Thursday, eight months after the 109-unit building was lost in a spectacular early-morning fire that investigators termed arson, the developer and city officials were at an impasse over how the Sunstates House should be rebuilt - or even if it should be.

The only thing left of the building, which was 70 percent complete when it burned, is the cinder-block foundation.

The issue turns on whether the city will endorse plans for the building now that the developer has redesigned it and agreed to offer all of the units to low- or moderate-income seniors.

The Sunstates partners say they can't offer all of the two-bedroom apartments at $553-per-month rent - including utilities - unless they get 9 percent tax credits from the Virginia Housing Development Authority. And that probably won't happen without the city's blessing.

``They're denying us the one thing we need to make this application successful,'' said Dr. Richard B. Barrick, a retired Portsmouth dentist and managing partner for Sunstates House Inc.

He did state in his tax credit application that 100 percent of the units would be low- and moderate-income. But he could not guarantee it in writing to the city.

``It's like shooting ourselves in the foot,'' he said

The City Council, unimpressed with the offer, has instructed City Manager James K. Spore not to endorse the tax credit application.

Barrick said he and his partners, including Tidewater Westminster Homes, have relinquished their $700,000 development fee to have the redesign done.

Barrick seemed baffled by the reaction. ``You would think we're doing something criminal by the way we're treated,'' he said.

There still is a chance of constructing a redesigned building on the site or rebuilding the previously designed structure, which the residents termed a ``warehouse for the elderly'' and the developer himself admits was ``boxy.''

``We can go back and build the precise same building on that site,'' Barrick said. Spore didn't disagree. ``He's probably correct,'' Spore said.

But William W. Harrison Jr., the Lynnhaven Borough representative on the City Council, said he'd fight any plan that didn't guarantee 100 percent of the apartments would be low-income rentals.

``If they go forward with less, they would be subjecting themselves to action by the city to stop it,'' he said.

Barrick said that if all else fails, he might ask his partners to consider putting condominiums at the location on Shore Drive near Great Neck Road - but it would again require city approval.

Part of Harrison's opposition stems from reactions from several civic leagues when residents saw the four-story building under construction.

``My constituents have seen it,'' Harrison said. ``They didn't like it and I don't think they want it back.''

Andy Anderson, president of the Lynnhaven Civic League, wouldn't argue with that. ``I didn't meet one person who wanted it built here. People said they were sad about what happened, but they were glad when it burned down.''

The council approved the project, a four-story structure on a 1.8-acre lot, on condition that it comply with federal rules that a certain percentage of the apartments would be offered at low rents.

The council insisted last fall that it had meant 100 percent of the units had to be offered at low rent. Barrick contends that he made no such promise. In fact, he said, he could only make that offer if he got approval for the 9 percent tax credits.

``Baloney,'' Harrison said of that contention.

Harrison accused the developer, who met with city officials but not him, of ignoring him. ``I don't know how they can expect to get a lot of support by end-running the borough councilman,'' Harrison said.

Lou Joyner, manager of Barrick's company, Barrick Multi-Family Enterprises, said of Harrison: ``He's impossible for us to deal with.''

Barrick's company has built senior complexes in Chesapeake and Portsmouth, which he said have consistently been fully occupied.

There were already 84 seniors on the waiting list for the Beach apartments before the fire. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

``You would think we're doing something criminal by the way we're

treated,'' said Dr. Richard B. Barrick of Sunstates House Inc. KEYWORDS: FIRE SENIOR CITIZENS HOUSING

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