HRVA

Yes.

The buildings closer to St Paul’s Blvd have included first floor commercial spaces in their plans.

It was reported recently that Economic Development is funding a study for a smaller events venue there in the 1k-2k seat range and $20 million for a performing arts center was mentioned in the newly released capital improvement plan - although not funded. The mayor also stated at the SOTC yesterday that an arena or sporting venue has been one of the ideas floated in a potential redevelopment of Greenbrier Mall. Previous reports were specifically a hockey arena. All of this is probably years away if ever though.

Story: https://www.13newsnow.com/video/news/local/mycity/chesapeake/chesapeake-mayor-delivers-state-of-the-city-address-6p/291-4af6fdc7-65a3-4313-84af-3ec6aa88b4b2 Full speech: https://www.wtkr.com/news/chesapeake-state-of-the-city-address-initiatives-challenges-opportunities-glimpse-of-citys-future?_amp=true Haven’t watched the full speech yet but the story goes over some of businesses coming to Summit Pointe & development in South Norfolk.

Leasing activity has really picked up and there’s not much remaining space available. On the retail side, X-Golf, a golf simulator bar/restaurant, and a medical spa have been announced for Block 3 with the one remaining space marked as ‘Lease Out.’ For office, Venture X coworking has taken a large block of space on the third floor, leaving only the fourth floor available.

Opportunity to redevelop two underutilized sites on the edge of Downtown and Fort Norfolk.

This was announced at 4488 Virginia Beach Blvd, which is Ruby Tuesday but I believe it may actually be going in the end cap in the strip behind it.

Renderings of the proposed municipal building in South Norfolk. This will be between the Gateway & ForKids HQ and will include a 300-car parking garage. Will give this block of Poindexter some good density and provide a ton of city services to the area.

Solid development and an extra floor over what they marketed the site for. Curious if they intend to occupy or if it’s speculative. If the latter then it could be a good barometer for a certain other long-planned office development nearby. Assuming nobody’s seen any renderings. I couldn’t find any.

Pretty good considering you’re driving down VB Blvd lol- Here’s the link to Franklin Johnston’s live feed: https://app.oxblue.com/open/tfjgroup/allcams

I don’t disagree but projects like these don’t happen without a profit incentive. And there’s something to be said about a massive influx of units and it’s impact on pricing of other units in the area. I do hope Marathon comes back with more affordable units but I don’t want the project to get rejected if they don’t.

Typically I would say the planning commission’s opinion doesn’t matter (because it doesn’t) but the East Beach Marketplace redevelopment ran into the same issue over affordable units and it had traction with City Council. Marathon is in a stronger position to walk away though so I’m interested to see how it plays out. Who steps up if this falls through? DePaul is a massive block of vacant space and an adaptive reuse to apartments is the only logical move. I’m all for more affordable housing but hopefully Council doesn’t die on this hill. At least not for this particular project.

Hopefully an indication that construction is coming: demolition permit submitted!

Norfolk calling out Hampton Roads Ventures is different because that entity is a subsidiary of NRHA. It’s a weird situation but it’s not the same as what you’re suggesting. The city should claw back the Beacon site as soon as they can and make it available to anyone with an appropriate proposal but they can’t and shouldn’t demand AH build something that doesn’t meet their financial requirements. They’re building offices in Baltimore because of significant preleasing commitments - that’s obviously not happening here.

Bally’s paid Diamond Sports for naming rights to the regional sports networks. Bally’s is not owned by Diamond Sports.

I agree the RFP process is the way to go. The extra time was an unintended consequence.

They went with them because at the time it was the only potentially viable path to a casino. As they were gearing up for the tribal approval process, the state approved casino gaming and Norfolk and the Pamunkey were already paired up. The only locality that had a true vetting process with multiple bids reviewed by the public was Richmond and the extra time it took killed it by the time the referendum came around. We will see how Round Two goes this November. It would of been nice if Norfolk had their choice of operators like the other cities but at the same time Norfolk’s proposal helped push casino gaming to the governor’s desk. Portsmouth probably won’t have their casino without Norfolk’s proposal.

There is a minimum capital investment of $300 million required by law, so while they could build a temporary casino, it can only operate for up to two years. They won’t be able to get a permanent license without making the investment in a permanent facility. There is also a requirement that a construction schedule is submitted for a permanent facility with the temp license. The temp license is one year with an additional year allowed only if they are complying with the construction schedule. It’d be great if the city could give an honest update about the status of the project. If this doesn’t end up happening and the city attempts another referendum in the future then the lack of transparency will be used against them.

Update from the lottery board on Jan 23 - page 14: https://www.valottery.com/-/media/val/images/promos/casinos-sports-betting/board-meetings/01252023-gaming-compliance-slides.ashx?la=en I’ll summarize: •Meetings are held to discuss overall progress. • Anticipates opening a temporary casino. Actually that’s verbatim. That’s the same exact thing they said last time. Three months and no real progress.

They discussed the redevelopment but maintained their previous position that they will continue to collect rent until the Bed Bath & Beyond lease runs out. They also mention trying to shoehorn in a global office tenant in Town Center but no mention of developing more office space. Opining but I don’t expect BB&B to make it to the end of their lease so I am still hopeful that it will force AH to move a little faster on this project. The location will be their last on the Southside and they appear to be abandoning their nearly complete buy buy Baby in Greenbrier.

It’s not downtown.

It’s not on Concord Eastridge’s website anymore. 500 units is pretty significant- they were planning 207 at the time.

Next earnings call is in two weeks and BB&B will likely have filed bankruptcy by then. With both tenants in bankruptcy maybe we will see some movement on AH’s plans.

Of all the possibilities, a casino is probably unlikely but if the Pamunkey deal falls through and other sites are considered for a new referendum, I would expect it to be in the conversation. Frankly, I put this as more likely than the mall getting redeveloped into a street grid by 2030. It may be the ideal outcome but I don’t see the economics supporting a full redevelopment.