varider

I don’t see any progress, nor any equipment on site, no signage. just an ugly fence still. progress here continues to crawl..

Sad. We don’t even have to look that far to find an example of a city that’s blowing us out of the water (urban development wise). Look how far Richmond has come. They have more under construction, tons more proposed— just feels like an impressive amount of momentum up there. I wish some of that could trickle on down to good ol Tidewater

If any of you feel so inclined, please send a letter of support to our council members, so they don’t think there’s only opposition in regards to these facilities and the request to fund the road.

https://onemileatatime.com/news/breeze-airways-losing-money/ Breeze is reportedly losing tons of money. On a related note, it’s ridiculous that they come and tout these new routes and destinations, but they only offer maybe 1 or 2 flights per week, and won’t operate in the fall/ winter. It’s really not functional, and maybe a part of why they are failing.

sorry, yes I was referring to the Railyard development, not the Railroad District itself ( I agree w you the residential there is starting to take off) my point was that a project like the Railyard would be more dynamic if the city itself was in a better position for growth

It can be crowded on weekends and when a cruise ship is in… it does well at organized events and such. maybe we will see some more regular activity when the apartments open up? All of these issues are IMO the result of ZERO growth rate in the city and in the region. For example, the railyard district is awesome and I’m excited for it, but if we were a growing city, that would have at least had a residential element and a more interesting tenant mix? and we likely could have lost the surface parking. If more people were moving here and just a generally more favorable view / more buzz , I don’t think we’d have these problems such as waterside being dead or every project failing or falling short of expectations. It’s an economic issue IMO why everything here tends to be dead

senior living aside, shorter buildings aside, it feels good to start eating away at the surface parking. it already has made an impact and we’re only 1.5- 2 floors out of the ground.

don’t look now, railyard district is on the rise

Do we know anything about this? https://hrchamber.com/news/article/the-breeden-company-continues-virginia-beach-expansion-with-construction-of-115-unit-multifamily-community/ $46M, 115 apartments called the Ascend at Hilltop on Laskin?

RIP to my hopes for actual urban development at Pembroke Square! https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/pembroke-square-scales-back-some-parts-of-project/ AT BEST, we are now looking at a measly 7 story hotel (down from 14), and a measly 7 story apartment building (down from 12).WITH AT BEST, construction STARTING in 12-18 months. What a nightmare. I thought we were getting a Town Center expansion, now it’s looking like Battlefield/Greenbrier scale

https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/headwaters-developer-scraps-temporary-casino-plans/ The plans for the casino that were submitted to the city fell short of Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander’s expectations. “Although it may be constructed in phases, I was not expecting them to turn [the plan] in phases,” Alexander said. The mayor added that he was concerned by the lack of concrete details in the plan, as well as a lack of communication from developers on the casino’s application status with the Virginia Lottery, the state regulatory body that must approve the casino’s operating license. “We continue to ask them for the same information over and over again,” Alexander says. “I want all the details to accompany the pretty pictures. Submit the supporting documentation.”

https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/2023-va-hotel-revenues-up-12-9-over-pre-pandemic-as-of-may/ Driven largely by tourism, hotel revenues in Hampton Roads led the state, rising 27.4% higher than 2019. The region has “more than fully recovered from the pandemic,” according to a news release from the Dragas Center. Rooms sold through May decreased 10.5% in Northern Virginia, by 7.1% in the Roanoke market and by 1.3% in the Virginia portion of the Bristol/Kingsport market, compared with pre-pandemic data. In Hampton Roads, the Norfolk/Portsmouth, Chesapeake/Suffolk and Virginia Beach markets fared better than other submarkets, with 10.8%, 6% and 4.9% increases in rooms sold, respectively.

Well if we didn’t provide the $$ , someone else might have. Is it worth it to risk losing out on 600 office jobs just to save 1.5M from the development fund? We scrutinize everything around here. If there were out of state companies beating down the door to relocate here, I would maybe understand the argument, but not when we almost NEVER get good news about office jobs. I couldn’t think of a better use of $1.5M ($3M total) than to have 600 (307 new jobs to be exact) more people working in the vicinity of Town Center. That’s less than $10K per new job. I think it’s nice to reward ZIM for staying loyal and sticking with the decision to relocate from NYC.

The sad part is that all we really needed from Council lately is for them to stay out of the way. Like you said, opportunities have fallen into our lap, and this council has shot them down, turned them away, and made it much more difficult of a process than necessary to govern here. VB will grow to be a big city one day. They may be successful (for now) at getting in the way of progress and slowing down the inevitable, but future generations will see the potential we all saw in this area, and the growth and activity will come. I think VB was so happy with the ZIM news because it was safe, and they didn’t need anything from the city (like a land transfer or rezoning), and honestly because it’s only 300 more jobs. I think VB gets nervous when companies talk about 2000+ jobs. They literally say things like “where will these people live” or “where will the kids go to school.” It’s unbelievable the micromanagement and over-analysis that goes on in our local govt. If they would just let some things be, we would actually have a fighting chance.

The grant came from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund, not from VB. There is no rent to pay, they purchased the building near Town Center. Obviously it’s not as exciting as a relocation from outside the region, but it’s still a pretty big deal that they plan to hire 300 more workers, and I think it’s cool that they will be near Town Center and Pembroke Square. If they didn’t get the grant, they might have left the region.

300 existing jobs have retained from Norfolk, with 300 additional jobs expected in VB over the next 5 years

https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/virginia-beach/global-cargo-shipping-company-to-expand-to-virginia-beach/amp/ 300 new jobs, $60K-$70K salary, near Town Center/Pembroke Square.

Tides sellout 06/17/23

I just suggest you watch the last 30 or so minutes of the meeting.. I’m at a loss for words. I’ve never seen such a dysfunctional group of adults. Schulman and Remick were the only two that even remotely stood up for common sense and the importance of economic development and the fact that we need to diversify the economy and that these projects don’t come along but every blue moon. Councilman Taylor kept throwing a fit about how he’s being “lobbied” and “harassed” by special interests and the Chamber to proceed with the project, but all the average every day citizens are opposed, but he did kind of spill the beans about Capstone, and how the city shot down that huge development opportunity because of opposition, and doesn’t see why they wouldn’t do the same here. Rouse finally spoke for one of the first times, and had absolutely nothing intelligent to say, I could barely understand the point she was trying to make, something about public land should be used for public uses, idk, and Henley claims to have some secret parcel of land that is ready for industrial development but is in private hands. It was just a true disaster of a conversation, and if I were the potential developer or anyone on a mission, I wouldn’t waste my time with this council or the strong NIMBY opposition. The city never developed a vision for itself. The citizens don’t want it to grow, council just wants what the citizens want, and there is just absolutely no initiative to grow or attract or develop business. Even when opportunities fall into our lap, we fumble them because we simply have no identity and can’t even agree on the basic premises like whether or not we NEED more jobs. I can’t place all the blame on the local government. Yes, they are inept and ineffective and simply not strong leaders, but the general public that elected them and tolerates their incompetence is also at fault. If there was ANY sort of support to counter the overwhelming opposition, we might be able to have different conversations around here. But as long as Council truly believes the vocal NIMBY anti development anti growth voices are the only ones with opinions, we are absolutely stuck.

The latest city council meeting is just wild. I can’t believe how incompetent and incapable of a group we have elected to lead this city. The bickering over Project Wayne is a new record low point IMO. We have developers knocking down the door to build (Capstone, Rudee Loop, Project Wayne, Amazon, etc.), and the council is engaged in “strategic delay” they claim?? Take so long to respond and take a position that the developers will just go away and leave us alone and leave our city status quo/on the decline? I truly despise city council at this point.

NIMBYism is alive and well in the Burg https://wydaily.com/latest-news/2023/06/09/frye-properties-temporarily-withdraws-spotswood-rezoning-application/ Frye Properties went before the Williamsburg Architectural Review Board on Feb. 13 to present its design book and open discussion about rezoning, which would move the number of allotted buildings from 87 single-family homes to 166. Almost immediately, concerns were raised from citizens about traffic from increased population density on already busy existing roadways, as well as safety concerns with the predicted increased traffic volume, increased sedimentation in the waterway near the site and the amount of pollution it would bring.