DATE: Friday, September 12, 1997            TAG: 9709120615

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MICHAEL CLARK AND MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITERS 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   94 lines

MORE JETS SHOULD MAKE REAL ESTATE FLY

Relocating F/A-18s squadrons to Oceana Naval Air Station would be a boon to residential and commercial real estate, industry professionals say.

They predict the move would bring new families to fill the rental and home markets and boost the economy enough to attract new business.

The Navy's draft environmental assessment, released Wednesday, estimates Virginia Beach will see the addition of 4,160 military and civilian households as a result of the squadrons' transfer.

From apartments to townhouses to condominiums, the initial effects on residential real estate will be in the rental market, said Ann Palmateer, military relocation director for GSH Realty in Virginia Beach.

``The benefit will be felt from Oceana west,'' Palmateer said. ``The majority of the people in a squadron will be enlisted and most will be in the rental market.''

The area around Oceana is experiencing its lowest vacancy rate in about five years, Palmateer said. The rate is no higher than 4 percent, she said.

``If you bring in even 150 people in one squadron and the majority are renters, you can see how property will be taken up,'' she said.

The long-term effect will be seen when the rental market shifts to the buying market, Palmateer said.

Senior enlisted personnel and officers will have the means to buy homes.

``Single-digit interest rates make the buying market more viable,'' Palmateer said. ``You can buy a house for as much as you pay in rent on an equivalent property.''

Lloyd Claud, associate broker for Realty Executives in Virginia Beach, agreed.

``We will be able to accommodate them,'' Claud said of the personnel and their families. ``Most of them will be in and around Oceana, rather than traveling to Chesapeake and Norfolk.''

Palmateer said that newly drawn noise zones will not lower property values.

``Many people in the military don't mind living in a high-noise zone,'' she said. ``Maybe if you're at the end of a runway in a crash zone, that might have an immediate impact.''

Home value is always in the eye of the buyer and the seller, Palmateer said.

On the commercial side, real estate developers and managers said Oceana has not hampered development, and it may have helped.

The Lynnhaven corridor west of Oceana, for example, is already in a noise zone and is one of the hottest commercial areas in Hampton Roads. Lynnhaven's vacancy rates for office and industrial space are around 5 percent, among the lowest in the region.

Gerald Divaris, president of Divaris Real Estate, which manages several buildings in Lynnhaven, said developers are accustomed to meeting noise-abatement requirements in their buildings.

``I don't think there will be any change from the building, value, desirability, tenant standpoints,'' he said. ``Everyone in business knows about Oceana. . . . We make the walls a little thicker to soundproof them, and most don't have operable windows.''

Adding more planes will only boost the economy and security of the area, Divaris said. ``We might see more development.''

Patrick K. Mugler, of Robinson Sigma commercial real estate, agreed.

``There's about 1 million square feet of Class A office space in Lynnhaven and people are going to look there,'' he said. ``The amenities are there.''

Mugler cited Lillian Vernon and Household Recovery, which have expanded in the last two years in Oceana West Industrial Park.

``They have more than 1,000 employees making phone calls from there,'' he said. ``Obviously, noise is not a problem.''

A spokesman for Lynnhaven Mall, John Westbrook, said the expansion also would not affect any plans to expand the shopping center.

Virginia Beach has three noise zones. The most stringent noise-abatement requirements are in Zone 3, which experiences jet noise greater than 75 decibels.

Robert Loher, administrator for Virginia Beach's Division of Permits and Inspections, said each has its own requirements ``for the types of materials that can be used, the thickness of the walls, the number of openings, the thickness of the doors and windows.

``If you're not in Zone 3,'' Loher said, ``it won't add a lot to the cost of building.''

By 1999, more than 51,000 acres around Oceana and nearby Fentress Naval Air Station would experience noise greater than 75 decibels.

Loher said north and south of Oceana, in the flight paths, would be in Zone 3, as would Corporate Landing Office Park to the south. Lynnhaven, to the west, probably would be in Zone 1 or 2.

Residential builder Michael D. Sifen confirmed an estimate made Thursday by Robert R. Matthias, assistant to the city manager of Virginia Beach, that homes built with more noise-abatement materials would cost about 8 percent more.

A house built with triple-paned windows and 2-by-6s and 2-by-8s instead of 2-by-4s would cost between 8 percent and 10 percent more, Sifen said.

``That amount would include more insulation, too,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

Gary Smith, a car salesman at Flightpath Motors on Virginia Beach

Boulevard, says he's glad to see the Navy planes overhead every day. KEYWORDS: OCEANA EXPANSION: WHAT IT WOULD MEAN

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