Former Resident of HR

CVS in Wells Fargo... don't set your sights too high there. Besides, there is a pharmacy on Granby that would prob be run out of business by the shoddiest of the big three pharmacies. As a resident of DT, I say a big no thanks to that. The short answer to your other question though would probably be this: Major retail chains like two things. #1 is a FREE parking lot surrounding their business and #2 is cheap rent. DT offers limited parking in garages (which by most accounts, a lot of people do not like) and the rents are still way over-priced. Should Wells Fargo's retail get going, I would really like to see things that are not duplicates of what is already in Ghent. 5 Guys would be new to Norfolk. Panera or SBX is adding almost nothing new. I mean if we are going the chain (or "National Retailer") route, it would be nice to see something new. Don't even get me started on why I think that the third anchor at McArthur could/should be an Ikea or a Target with a skating rink on the roof lol...

I am shocked about the rates in some of these new places. It's like they are trying to move the area into NoVa prices without any of the amenities/salaries. They probably get some tax write offs or something so if half sit empty, who cares? I see the rental turnover in Ghent and Freemason growing. Maybe it is all the new student housing at ODU or the oversupply of apartments from the past two years. You would think the rates would go down but they are still pretty static.

More $$ down the drain. How many times are they going to modify that street?

Vomit. I mean just what Ghent needs, another branch of another lame bank. Go Monarch!

Wow when I saw that building was empty, I was sure it would have a "Coming Soon: CVS" sign within a matter of days to round out the other drug stores. I just wish something would happen with the strip across from there where Eckard and Uncle Louie's was. The other three corners all seem to be fully occupied with businesses. I think the owner of that strip is some greedy old battle-axe who is holding up everything.

I want to say that something similar was the back story with Jack Quinn's. I remember some story about how the business owner was paying his lease and the building owners could not make a move as long as he was doing this. It was the same story for the location where Harris Teeter now sits in Ghent. Farm Fresh held the lease even though it sat empty for years. One of the many reasons I won't shop at their stores.

I have always thought that once light rail gets going, the HOV lanes would be the perfect place to put it. BUT... would the bridges be able to take the weight of the tracks, trains, etc? Going up Military Hwy? That seems pretty weird. And everyone says "the base" but it is a HUGE place and all stops would have to be outside the gates for it to work.

You are kidding right? I actually used to have to ride the NET when I worked in DT Norfolk for awhile. Well, I worked north of Brambleton and would have to go into DT for meetings and lunch and stuff so everyone was like "let's take the NET". DUMBEST BUS ROUTE EVER. I mean, yeah at rush hour, it is great at getting people to parking lots about as quickly as they could make it by crab walking. But usually, the buses would be all bunched up together (NET bus, three cars, second NET bus all going about 1 mph) and never on a time schedule. It got to the point where I would just walk from work to where I wanted/had to go unless the weather was totally unbearable. The route should have been revamped on weekends to make a loop through Ghent (especially weekends when the cruise ships pulled in). And the funny thing is that the old weird electric buses quit working so it's not even really the NET. I am all for expanding it to new areas and tying it into LR. Hope HRT has their stuff together for the big launch.

Well the construction does suck. They should get one of those 4x4 looking golf carts to take you anywhere. But this seems like the dumbest thing to hit downtown Norfolk since the NET. I live in the 48 block zone, so I am tempted to see how many times I can call them to take me to the mall or the grocery store or maybe just the end of the zone so I can walk the rest of the way to Ghent before they quit taking my calls.

Interesting points... but I think with some imagination, the LR could be sent up Colley and Hampton or something. Colley is wide enough to have the train go up on each side with regular vehicles in the middle. Or vice versa, train in the middle and cars on each side and a couple of stops where they can widen the space between the tracks. All on street parking would be eliminated but they could compensate with a couple garages. Maybe instead, they could put a train in one direction going up Hampton and another on Colley in the opposite direction through Ghent and the Colley line could reconnect to the Hampton line on the ODU Campus. What worries me is putting it all along the far west side of Ghent where that bike trail is. No benefit to Ghent in general by doing that and no prospects of development because there are nothing but huge houses there. Maybe they could just get a LR line through the midtown tunnel and make a totally separate streetcar line going up Colley to the base in its own dedicated right of way. Streetcars are cheaper to build and putting them down the median would mean they would not have to be in traffic. Basically, Colley and Hampton can support it the tracks from the underpasses north thanks to medians and more available (read: seize-able) land. It is just getting the train from the Medical Center through Ghent that would be the big problem. And about street cars... It would be very cool if VB would get the ball rolling and get street cars in the trolley lanes at the ocean front to meet up with LR. I rode Portland's streetcars which work well except for the fact that they roll along with traffic in the lanes at the same time. STUPID. They should be the only vehicles allowed in those lanes sort of like in VB, especially during rush hour.

One day I may be able to read a post without someone's lame comments about how dangerous Norfolk is being as I have lived here over 13 years and have never been mugged on my walks from downtown (where I live) to Ghent.

Tear the Union Mission down? Wow. I am assuming you don't live downtown when you say you would rather have a tower than an historic structure there. I am sure there would be an uproar. I had actually hoped that the Norfolk Library would move there. What would be interesting and possible (read: tax breaks) is if they could do both. There is a big lot behind the Mission that could support a modern glass building of multiple stories while saving the old portion of the mission as an entrance. And not some faux colonial crap building, but something very sleek, glassy and modern to contrast. Too bad the condo craze went bust before they renovated that. Apartments? Hotel?

Well even that was an issue. MacArthur during the day is pretty dead as well. My friend asked, "does this place pick up during the weekend?" and I don't really know bc I don't usually go there. Saying there is a good presence of pedestrians is really a stretch. Street level retail is one of the major things missing, this is true. But I doubt that Norfolk city has enough brains (or b*alls) to attract retail that people will shop downtown. It really seems that good things happen to Norfolk by purely accidental circumstances and that if we had leaders with some foresight, we could do so much more. Oh well... maybe in 20 years Norfolk will be better but by then so will everywhere else.

The past few days really have me scratching my head. BIG TIME. I had a guest from out of town for a few days from a much larger city who had some comments about Norfolk. Biggest was "why is it so dead downtown?" Even after all the so-called development, Norfolk is one of the deadest cities I have seen. All this crap with Waterside drives that home. Norfolk is stuck in some massive time warp where they believe that the city council knows all and knows best. They continually do things that send a clear signal to businesses that "WE DON'T WANT YOU!" A decent city would give businesses a warning or a 90 day notice or whatever. Instead, they lock the doors to the businesses that pay taxes when the city os going broke. Even VB, with its conservative reputation, took a massive risk putting in the Town Center and it is paying off. They want Waterside to be a "family destination"? Why not close the doors to Hooters? Do they not know that the young people who they are trying to lure to downtown usually don't have kids or bring them to Waterside at 11pm-2am? This whole chapter has made me (and quite a few of my friends) see that the city of Norfolk is a complete joke. And we the taxpayers living here are the punchline.

Seriously you would imagine someone living by a place long enough you would know the difference between the words Viola and Voila (the actual name of the place). Yo.

Wow another nimby neighborhood league that gets everyone to sign petitions by misrepresenting the project and using scare tactics. If you want to live in some neighborhood with huge lots in the suburbs move away to NC and let Norfolk develop into a city. I would bet that should Decker reapply after the elections, they will rezone it again.

Does anyone know AN OPENING DATE?

Trader Joe's has the signs up and the location is listed on the website as "coming soon". Does anyone know an opening date?

Hmmm I think the only big changes that are going to be sweeping Granby in the next couple of years are all the "for lease" signs that will be popping up in the near future. The city leaders seem to take one step forward and then three steps back with all their choices for DT. I really wish we could get some people with a real vision (Read: people under 60 who are not stuck in a time warp of how things usta be back in the day) on city council. I think a big problem is that they think all military people are cheap and not interested in anything off the base, but most of them have been other places and other military towns seem to do OK (San Diego for example). Norfolk is a Navy town but never seems to be able to really embrace that fact or really exploit that market in general.

You alone are going to get WalMart to better staff its Janaf location? Seriously? The racism argument may work except for the fact that the Portsmouth WalMart seems to be adequately staffed and the staff there are very friendly. The Janaf WalMart is typical Norfolk: people who work there doing nothing, hiding from customers and being rude to everyone because they think they are in a big city. Basically it is the same treatment that city of Norfolk gives its residents. I avoid shopping the Military Hwy corridor bc all the stores there follow this pattern.

Have they done any work on that site? Last time I was in that area if town it was still up for lease.

Wow, one thing I have always liked about HT in Ghent is that it is small, easy to navigate and has just about everything needed. I loathe the ginormous HT in Chesapeake because it is so unmanageable. And with them tearing the old one down, it will open up the whole huge PARKING LOT onto Colonial, YAY!!! I just LOVE looking at suburban strip mall looking projects that seems to keep popping up in Ghent. Pretty soon it will look just like VB. YES! From the sounds of this, I do hope there is something to keep the lot from being the focal point driving up Colonial. And also, the old folk's tower next to HT has a sky garden or something. Oh well, easy come, easy go.

Norfolk and HRT is like the blind leading the blank. They obviously want to move bus riders out of downtown because poor people ride buses and are not trendy enough to see when the fine people at the Wachovia Centre look out their windows. The sad part is that many of these people work downtown cleaning the offices of the snobs who don't want to see how they get home. Now they are moved another 15 minute walk (or 120 minute shuttle ride) to the north for what reason? They could/should have moved it back to the Monticello side of Scope for the time being. As a citizen, I am pretty disgusted with the lack of vision from both entities. Further reason I have little faith that the LR system will be any better thought out. Welcome to Baltimore Jr. or Detroit III.

I think the thing that strikes me about Waterside is how dark and dingy it feels (and smells). It was like that before all the lame bars came too. I could see the food court serving all the office workers across the street if it had some national chains in the mix. Starbucks, Taco Bell, etc. Some places that people have heard of. I don't know though. It is really not a place that I frequent and would never dream of bringing out of town friends there. It's just kind of a military/blue collar hang out spot to me and most of the people I know. If something is built there, I am sure that most people in Norfolk would flip out like they did when were going to build a hotel down there.

Looks like Waterside is having woes. Not a big shock to anyone who's been there in the past decade. It looks old and smells nasty. That was even before all the bars moved in. Oh well, $850K a year down the toilet... http://hamptonroads.com/2008/03/norfolk%E2...ts-shaky-future