
DATE: Saturday, September 6, 1997           TAG: 9709060403

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   73 lines

PARKING IS ONLY HITCH AT CENTER'S OPENING CHESAPEAKE CELEBRATING NEW CIVIC FACILITY AT GREENBRIER

Opening night at the Chesapeake Conference Center - and manager Bill Lindley was a tad stressed.

Dust on the coat check booth, 392 boxes of china unpacked the day before, and the outdoor ashtrays were still in transit.

Then there was the parking.

Chesapeake's multimillion-dollar foray into conference centers opened without a glitch Friday night, except for the parking, which ran out around 6:30 p.m. for some of the 750 guests of a fund-raising dinner for attorney general candidate Mark Earley. Gov. George F. Allen was the keynote speaker.

The conference center's back lot filled by 5:50 p.m. The front lot filled 40 minutes later.

Adjacent parking lots at Greenbrier Towers and the Greenbrier Circle Corporate Center remained vacant after city officials ran into problems getting permission and promises of city liability from the owners.

To make do, a field across the street was mowed, and about 40 cars parked there. Some of the guests were shuttled in a vehicle borrowed from Old Dominion University. Others walked.

``I've heard no complaints,'' said economic development Director Donald Z. Goldberg, who spent a good deal of time opening doors for guests and surveying the lot. ``I'm not worried about it at all.''

Ignoring a Planning Commission recommendation, the City Council voted 6-2 last November to allow the conference center to be built without the number of parking spaces required under the city's zoning ordinance.

The ordinance would have required 500 spaces. City staff had argued that 340 - 12 of them handicapped - would do. It wasn't enough on Friday night.

Three hours before the event began, members of the city's Industrial Development Authority and Armada/Hoffler signed the lease-to-buy agreement for the building, officially beginning a 30-year lease that will cost the city $2,413.62 per day to rent the building.

The facility, located in the city's Greenbrier section, was built as a private-public partnership between the city, its Industrial Development Authority and local builder Armada/Hoffler.

Armada/Hoffler built the 51,000-square-foot facility on land it sold to the city at a total cost of about $9 million. The building was completed last week.

The city, through the Industrial Development Authority, will now lease the building from Armada/Hoffler for $880,971 annually.

The city has the option to buy the facility within the first 12 months for $8,995,000.

If the city allows the lease to run its course, it can buy the building for $100. By that time, the city will have paid an estimated $26.4 million to Armada/Hoffler.

The lease agreement is being funded through an increase in the city's hotel and meal taxes, which was approved by the City Council last year.

The lodging tax was increased from 5 percent to 6 percent, while the meal tax increased from 5 percent to 5.5 percent. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

BETH BERGMAN/The Virginian-Pilot

The new Chesapeake Conference Center, in the Greenbrier area, had

its first function Friday night when it was the scene of a political

fund-raiser for attorney general candidate Mark Earley.

Color Photo

BETH BERGMAN/The Virginian-Pilot

Judy Kernell plays her harp during the opening festivities at the

new Chesa-

peake Conference Center on Friday night. At right is Jerry Fisher,

who plays clarinet and saxophone. Gov. George F. Allen was the