scm

You could ask the same question about the end space (actually, both end spaces!) in the building across the street -- the one with Fresh Market and SteinMart -- drove by there this weekend and there is yet another restaurant going in the last space across the parking lot from Kitchen Barn. Burton's will be interesing -- I wonder how the Great Neck crowd will react to something new. They continue to patronize a rather mediocre Coastal Grill for years. Burton's does something not terribly adventurous, but with what (from as much as you can pull off a web site) appears to be very high standards of American classic high end food. Again, if they just duplicate Artie's in Fairfax (also part of a corporate ownership group), I think they will do fine. But then I had high hopes for Zinc Brassierie -- which wasn't a brassierie for long...... (I wonder how much about myself I revealed with using those landmarks, versus, say Mai Zhen or Blue Ridge Mountain Sports?)

I went back and looked at the Portfolio Weekly announcement about the Zinc closing, and I thought I had remembered reading this: The web site and the menu remind of one of my NoVa favorites -- Artie's in Fairfax. If it is that good, we are in for a treat.

It is in the NE corner of the 56 building, with frontage on both sides. "Coming Soon" sign is visible from VB Blvd. Also visible is the signage on the new Chipotle, right next to Panera across from B&N. Can't wait for that. Been waiting a long time. Their behavior is to spread quickly once they enter a market, so stand by for more.

Out of state restaurant chain expanding to Hilltop My son told me about the following job listing on Craigslist:

I'm agreeing with you, brother. Preach on! You are taking exactly the right step -- first, can you afford it? Based on your after tax cost compared to renting, yes -- cash flow impacts are about equal. Second, do you like it? Will you enjoy living there? Third, can you qualify for the financing? After that, nothing else matters -- especially not how much money you will make. We are talking about your home here, not your 401K! The only way the appreciation ever matters is if you move out, convert it to investment, and let time be your friend. As long as you live in it, the equity is meaningless. The market timing issue? I heard recently that over the last six years, if you had been out of the market on six days, you would have missed 30% of the run-up in the Dow over that period. The lesson is, that you can't time it to a nat's behind. Get in when it makes sense, and stay in.

Well, a little perspective from the old guy. I've seen two of these housing "crisises" in my lifetime -- SoCal mid 80s and Austin late 80s -- both were caused by large losses of wage earners -- SoCal's when the aerospace industry shrunk and Austin's when the building boom ended with the S&L crisis. It is a sobering realization when you know that you will have to take money to closing. But there is nothing of the type going on here -- there are no job losses, and there never will be on a scale big enough to cause a 50% drop in prices. The reality is, that while there was some speculative building and some "flipping" expectation buying, not nearly enough on a scale to drive down prices. Homeowners, especially SFR owners, don't act like other commodity buyers in a down turn. They sit on their property as long as they can make the payment, or don't have to cash out for a move. The subprime market will affect that -- to a limited extent, and in certain neighborhoods and price points. No effect at all in SFR neighborhoods near the water, as those sellers will just wait it out. That's why markets go flat or have small downturns, not big drops. Wait it out is an interesting strategy -- our Cali TH, which we bought for $89K in '79 (after selling it's predecessor for $65.9K from a '76 purchase price of $39K) got to $125K by '84 and stayed there for about four years. Just checked Zillow -- FMV is now $450K. Same thing on the Austin house -- was $30K upside down once around '88. Now has about $100K in equity. Time is the friend of the SFR owner.

OK -- it is a cold day in hell. I agree with Paul Krugman on something. Stranded in Suburbia

Absolutely dead on, MM -- you get the gold star for being over a month in advance of any sort of announcement. Couldn't be happier -- TJ's on one corner, Fresh Market on the other!

I don't think that is likely. SuperTargets are around 175K sq. ft. -- this is 136K, much like the new one at Strawbridge. Also like the one at Strawbridge, there is expansion space adjacent -- possibly to grow into a SuperTarget in the future?

Governments subsidizes rail lines

Economic factors point to even higher ridership factors once the Tide is actually running. Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit

Slightly off topic (grin), but does any one with a REALLY long memory, remember just where this Union Station was located? The link says it was "at the end of E. Main Street". Was it where city hall is now, or further east, say where Harbor Park is now?

Planners want Kirn light rail station to have an indelible identity

I would blow up the Regal and place the Town Center light rail station there. There just isn't another good location -- you have to be that far east of Independence, or the stopped trains will block Independence. Constitution and Columbus are natural access streets, bus bays right there. Easy tie over the creek to the new developments along Bonney Road... Just a hunch, but I will bet the remaining land, after some is sold to HRT for the station, will still be worth more due to the TOD potential. Something like Market Commons at the Clarendon Metro Station would be called for, and probably justifiable.

That is a widely held, but completely false viewpoint. I work in the federal tech services industry, for one of the largest providers of such services -- after spending twenty seven years in Naval aviation. The Navy has never embraced the contracted tech services model to anywhere near the extent of, for example, the Air Force. There are big numbers of contractor employees at Langley. Our company has over three hundred at Langley -- zero at Oceana. Part of it is because Langley has world wide responsibilities as Air Combat Command's HQ -- Oceana has nothing of the sort. There are small numbers of support contract "tech reps" in every squadron at Oceana --- I would estimate the number at not over 200. Your number of 20-30K jobs potentially lost is just wrong -- from someone in a position to have a pretty good idea. The issue, is the impact on the citizens -- the tax paying citizens -- of VB. It is a little easier to say you "love jet noise" when you aren't paying for the cost of providing services to non-tax payers associated with that noise. Our VB real property tax tax bill in 2007 was $7,353. I'm not saying that to brag -- we are blessed -- but to say that is the amount of skin that I have in the game. You may think that there is no veto power over development at VB's most valuable section of RE -- just propose a building over 225' and see what you get. I don't know what else to call it. IRT the property tax issue -- the public private ventures are something new. Here in Hampton Roads, it only dates to 2005. But, it is important to note that while the building does convey to the private entity, the land (where the PPV takes over existing housing -- as they did here) remains gov't property and off the tax rolls. Also, that has only happened here for married housing. So, my guess (and it is a 27 year experienced base "guess") is that 30% of the Oceana singles, mainly enlisted, live on base and in housing that is completely off the tax rolls. 90% of the married, officer and enlisted, live off base, many in houses they bought, and which they do pay taxes on. The on base married housing (which I again, guessed at 10%) pays no real property tax on the land. Still doesn't change the fact that everything on base is off the tax rolls, most of the employees (active duty military) pay no state income tax. And no one with out of state plates pays the vehicle tax. This has nothing to do with being pro, or anti-military. Oceana has impacts on the surrounding community unlike almost any other military installation -- and not because of new tactics or technology -- but because of the inherent training requirements of night carrier landings. Forty years ago, there were seven east coast Naval Air Stations with permanently assigned jet squadrons. Today, there is one. Forty years ago, all weather, day and night operations were spread out and the burden was shared. Today, it falls on one location. The Navy closed all of those bases and centralized in the most dense, urban setting of the bunch. VB didn't do that -- the Navy, which I love, did. Fort Hood, Texas, doesn't tell Killeen what or where they can build. Only air stations do that. I laugh every time the TV stations run notices telling everyone on the Peninsula that Langley will be night flying at this or that time -- never run those about flying at Oceana, because they'd have to run every day! The bottom line is that the unique operational nature of a Naval Air Station is incompatable with a developed environment, and the total cost of that burden, and every thing that goes with it, is borne disproportionately by the tax payers of VB.

Zio's on Colley has closed. Norfolk restaurant Zio's closes

A little history lesson here, from someone old enough to remember (grin). Until the late seventies, the USAF operated a system of air defense radars around the country -- 68 at the peak, including Cape Charles Air Force Station, right at the south end of the Eastern Shore. Throughout the 70s, the Department of Defense and the FAA had been negotiating to create a Joint airspace Surveillance System, called, appropriately JSS. To create it, the AF closed Cape Charles in 1980 and transferred the duties to a joint AF-Navy radar site at Oceana. Important to note that this installation did not exist at Oceana until 1980 at the earliest. The radar was later updated between 1996 and 1999 to the current Air Route Surveillance System - 4 standard. So, as late as 1996, that radar could have been located anywhere else. It is where it is, not because the FAA wanted it there, but because the Navy did. The FAA is responsible for the operation, but they are a fall guy in this.

For the record, VB average household income in 2006 was $75,008. Unless a service member is an E8 with over 22 years, or an O3 with over 6, they don't have a household income at that level. I don' t know the specifics of Oceana's population but for the Navy as a whole, that only represents 3.2% of the enlisted force, and 40% of the officers. Since there are five times as many enlisted as officers, then you are only talking about around 1,000 of the 12,000 jobs at Oceana. Is all of this worth keeping 1,000 jobs that are higher than the VB average household income? Look at it another way -- Oceana closes, and an employer announces they will replace all 12,000 jobs the next day -- only 15% of which are greater than the VB average HH income. BUT, they want in return -- exemption from real estate and business property tax for everthing they use in those jobs. They want property tax exemption for the housing for 30% of their single employees, and 10% of the married. They want 90% of the jobs to be exempt from state income tax, and 90% of the employee's cars exempt from the car tax. They want the right to conduct manufacturing 24 hours a day, with potential noise impacts well past the limits of their property. And, they want to extend veto power over development plans at the oceanfront. At what point in that list were you overcome with laughter?

I am assuming you are not counting the approximate 220,000 take-offs and landings annually? Every one of those is < 1,000 feet, by definition. The issue on the interference with air operations is the extended center line of Rwys 5/23 -- it extends from the base to Birdneck Acres to PA Country Club. This is the path, that under normal operations, with the wind out of the north, that most flights depart on. When the wind is calm, usually at night, they use this as the main instrument approach. But the issue on the convention center height isn't interference with air operations -- it is interference with the surveillance radar located on the Oceana property, just off Oceana Blvd. For some reason, some dumb *sses with the FAA thought this would be a great place to put it -- the only radar of its kind south of New Jersey, and right smack in a place where urban density would interfere. Don't put it on the Eastern Shore, Sandbridge, or right on the water's edge at Dam Neck -- put it where, once again, the federal government can interfere in the development of VB's greatest asset, the oceanfront. Someday, the citizens of VB are going to wake up and realize that the cost of Oceana -- the total cost of educating kids that live in houses that have no tax revenue and whose parents pay no Virginia state income tax, of building roads for people with cars registered in other states, and now, not using a city owned property to its highest and best use -- is greater than the measly revenues earned by dry cleaners, barbers, "buy here, pay here" car lots, and titty bars. Someday.....

construction has begun on two new projects in Harbourview. First is the Harris Teeter anchored expansion of Harbourview Center, The Marketplace @ Harbour View: Second project turning dirt is a new Hilton Garden Inn on 3.5 acres on the west side of Harbour View Boulevard, just north of The Marketplace. I know the owner of the new Courtyard and Townplace Suites less than a mile away, at the far north end of Harbour View felt like, soon after opening, that he had built them too small.

Backed up by a survey of local residents conducted by CNU: The entire survey, coverning all transportation issues in HR, is reported in this article.

Retail was a part of the plan from the beginning

I stole this from a great website, LightRailNow:

Closed in "04.

Zinc Brasserie at Hilltop has closed, as of last Sunday. Never seemed to find its way, starting soon after opening. Great expectations - authentic zinc bar, involvement by Todd Jurich, authentic French menu. None of which lasted past three months, except the bar. Probably had the worst escargot I have ever had there.