vtfan18

The great thing about Chipotle (other than their food) is they attract a crowd. Next time you're there, take a moment to pay particular attention to the numbers that place can draw. I've been in there at different times of day, weekdays, weekends and that place is always packed. Norfolk needs more national brands such as this to attract the crowds. You'll then find that business for other nearby establishments will pick up- which is one reason why so many national brands piggy back off one another.

Has anyone noticed...TCC just put up fences around the "park area" between Granby and the mall to start site work for the TCC student center.

I've complained numerous times about Norfolk doing a very poor job of communicating the reasons, benefits, and future potential of light rail. I finally came across something I think would help Norfolk better illustrate and sell the idea. I don't think this has been previously posted but there are 91 pages of comments about light rail so I'm not completely positive. But this is an animation that takes Norfolk's current animation one step further. Norfolk's light rail animation falls short because it only shows the general public what light rail will look like. It does not show them what the city could look like or what life could be like with mass transit. This animation was created for the city of Kansas City and its a great selling point in my opinion. As a side note, the images in this animation (mixed use buildings) are fairly indicative of how I would I would plan St Paul's. Enjoy! Imagine Kansas City Animation

The City does a very poor job of communicating its ideas and vision for the long term. Community Center is a stupid idea for the long term but not such a horrible idea for the short term. Razing the structure is still a couple years off. As businesses begin to close down and leases expire the City needs to do something as a temporary measure so the building does not become a wasteland. It'd be stupid to try and attract new retailers/businesses at this stage. It's also dumb to sink a ton of money into the project. The City is essentially waiting for as many leases to expire as possible which buys time for a vision/plan to be developed. Now if that vision is great or just so-so, we'll all have to wait and see. The flip side is the City still has a commitment to the retailers in Waterside, they just can't turn their back on those business owners. The city should have done a much better job communicating this plan as a temporary measure because ordinary citizens will be disappointed if they have high expectations in the short term.

This is exactly the current state of Tidewater Gardens. The person who receives the housing is working in order to meet the requirement but the other family members do not.

I plan on attending but I can already tell I'll walk out of there feeling powerless and completely frustrated. It's amazing to realize how dumb (I literally mean dumb) business owners on Granby St and around St Pauls sound when they stand at events such as these and give their opinion on what should be incorporated. I heard it yesterday at a meeting about the closing of Granby St for light rail work. It makes you wonder how people stay in business!?!?

The first four are under construction and so is Town Point Park. Not sure if it'll begin in 09 but I know the TTC student center is under design, that's definitely going to happen.. The Market Square Station will happen with Light Rail. So they're actually moving forward with quite a few projects. We may not agree with everything Norfolk is doing but they certainly have a lot going on in a recession.

Yes...there are two separate addresses, 427-429. Although, right now the first floor is combined into one space.

Yes, he's got quite a nice collection of expensive cars.

La Galleria and Bobbywood are auctioning all of their restaurant equipment. The folks from Zedd are out back loading up trucks. The sign is a little unclear...I'm not sure if they are auctioning the restaurants too but the equipment, furniture, etc are definitely going!

Just to answer some of your questions from above. Bobby Wright owns the Gym Downtown and the building. The Subway is owned by a franchise owner (one of my neighbors) who obviously leases from Bobby Wright. The other "gym" has been in the works for a very long time leading us to believe it's on hold. Not to mention the viability of another gym in the area raises questions. Golds and the YMCA are the most popular for obvious reasons.

Downtown Norfolk's population base and layout makes it hard to attract the vast majority of fast food chains. Their site location is largely a component of foot/vehicle traffic and parking. Many chains prefer to have their own parking lot for customers. Norfolk's population is not large enough to make up for not having their own parking lot. Pedestrian traffic is ok during the day but completely dies after 5pm. But I would like the convenience of a fast food chain or two downtown.

Looks too much like the Franklin building which looks too much like a government services building which looks too much like everything else. Glad to see the lot and building next door being improved. But its a catch 22...we are missing a great opportunity to redevelop this area across Brambleton. Unfortunately, it'll only be greatly improved if a developer can assemble large parcels of land across Brambleton but that task is going to be difficult.

As promised, below is a link to a blog covering our LEED project. Hope you guys enjoy. We'll be holding an open house when the project is complete to educate folks on LEED and green building in general. Let me know if anyone is interested in attending. Thanks so very much! 1434 Lead St LEED Project

There is a new Chinese restaurant going in next to Bugatti's. The build out is taking place right now. I've been waiting for a Chinese place to open up in/near downtown, now it'll be within walking distance. I hope its good!

Just wanted to let everyone in on some exciting news. We just broke ground on a new construction single family home where we are pursuing LEED certification. I know we normally don't discuss single family residential projects but thought this was worth sharing with my fellow UP members. If we can acheive certification, it'll be the first LEED certified single family home in Hampton Roads and one of a handful in VA. The project is a great case study for smart/green design combined with low cost construction. Our goal is to be able to incoporate green construction practices into more affordable homes. It's very easy to construct a green home by throwing lots of money toward green features, the hard part is building green on a super tight budget. Anyways...our project was just registered with the USGBC and we poured footers yesterday. We were fortunate with this project because the home originally burned down and the owner needed it rebuilt, so we pursuaded him to let us pursue LEED certification. We'll soon be posting a blog about the project with much more detailed information. There we'll include drawings, numbers, background, etc...and we'll write about our experience and lessons learned on this project. If its ok with vdogg...I'll post a link to the blog once we get it up and running. Thanks!

Looks like we're one step closer to getting VB on board and expanding light rail into VB. Va. Beach poised for $20M grant for Norfolk Southern rail line

By the way...did anyone notice the building just recently torn down on Boush St? Demolition took place yesterday and today. The building is to the right of the Prudential Realty building on Boush as you head toward Ghent.

I work out there too and was told it was just going to be additional parking for golds.

Did anyone catch this Opinion article by Kerry Dougherty in the Pilot? The last bit of the column referring to Councilman Randy Wright is disturbing! How can you be a champion for light rail and say something like this!?! Light rail's main purpose is to provide mass transportation thus it is a means to reduce traffic congestion. The economic engine is a secondary benefit resulting from light rail. If you tell people you're building light rail to jump start economic development in Hampton Roads, you're totally missing the point of light rail. I bet we didn't tell the federal government we wanted light rail to drive the economy, no we said it was a transportation solution. Coming from a person who sits on the Hampton Roads Regional Transit Board, who is the Chair of the Virginia Commission on Transportation in Urban Areas, Chair of the Transit Board Members of North America...how can you not "sell" light rail as a transportation fix. Light rail is a transportation solution and of all people, Randy Wright should know better! Referendum, please, before Beach commits to light rail

Yeah, the store consists mostly of exotic wood furniture imported from countries in Asia. The employee I spoke with was super nice. This store is a spin off of a sister store down on the outerbanks. Unfortunately, I can't imagine the store surviving for very long especially in this economy. I was more impressed with the build out of the space than the actual furniture, just not my style. 540 Design Studio opened up right across the street. They do a lot of metal, plastic, and fabrication work. Tables, desks, stairs, railings...you get the point. Great guys, graduates from Tech!

Here is a brief iReport from CNN about Phoenix's new metro light rail. It mentions that thousands of people waited in line over 2 hours to ride the system on opening day. I just wish our community was so receptive. I don't hear the pilot writing much about the success of other rail systems. Its all about how much it costs and much the City has gone over budget. Any sensible person knew this project would be over budget but you gotta be able to look down the road 5 or 10 years from now so fully understand how beneficial this will be to the region. Phoenix Upgraded! New METRO Light Rail Opens

Good point I guess I was coming from a design standpoint. At least if GT were to hypothetically move forward the look of the building would have been half way decent.

I second that! We need more architects/real estate professsionals turned developer...not doctor turned developer because this is what you get.

No arguement here about going over budget. How many government projects out there come in on or under budget? Not many. Ridership levels will probably be lower than expected with the first phase. However, light rail projects see significant ridership level increases when the second phase comes online. It only makes sense, greater connections and expanded reach with commuters becoming more confortable with the idea of mass transit. Our general population is very conservative to say the least and still think they're living in an age of dial up internet. Most of our citizens still believe buying a 3500sf home in the suburbs is the American dream. It'll take time and lots of money but in the end, light rail here will be money well spent.