Glassoul

At first I thought it looked most like a prison. Now, the more I look at it the more it resembles a Soviet era block building in Eastern Europe to me. I'm not sure which is worse...

I'm not sure the city can force a developer to do that, though they can obviously pressure them into making some changes. But yeah, it looks like a prison.

Update: http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?...662&tref=po Rename Thread: Ghent South Towers Fort Norfolk Plaza Site plan goes before the council in a week. Condos are gone from the plans. Developer is in Baltimore this week hoping to secure a Summerfield Suites Extended Stay Hotel (brand of Hyatt). Sentara looking into leasing some space. First floor is tentatively scheduled to have a restaurant and a jazz club. The state owns some of the land the developers has planned to build on, but the state must first turn it over to the city to sell to the developer. Hopes to close on the land arrangements by April and begin construction in June.

Updates on 5 major projects throughout the city. http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?...662&tref=po Summary: 1: Ghent South Towers is now called Fort Norfolk Plaza. Condos are out. First floor is now tentatively to be a restaurant and jazz club. Negotiations ongoing with Hyatt for an extended stay hotel franchise, and still in final negotiations to purchase the land from the city (which is actually owned by the state). Sentara looking into leasing some space and developer has hired all the necessary companies to build it. Hopes to break ground in July. 2: 201 Twenty One - As per that discussion, building shell is being kept, developer in negotiations with contractors. 212 apartments and ground floor retail. "Could" break ground in the summer. 3: Kotarides - Held up by parking issues with the YMCA and the fact that building location is on the proposed light rail track. Site plan and design review still being developed. Likely still some ways away from groundbreaking. 4: Virginia Arts Festival - Has $3M of the $3.5M needed to build, should break ground in July. 5: Commander Corporate Center - New headquarters for Blackhawk Products group set to open in June. A second building is scheduled to break ground once they have leased enough tenants.

Interesting.... Curious, where did you look it up, or come across it? I think they'll first extend it to Pembroke first, then down the ocean front later on. They should also build a huge parking garage there when they do, so that people from the surrounding area can park their cars there and take it work in Norfolk and/or head to the oceanfront (eventually). Charge $2 for all day parking

Virginia Beach is about the furthest south you can reasonably drive in one day from Montreal/Quebec City with a family in tow (my personal best is 12h 45m, but that was doing 75-80mph most of the way with no kids and ONLY stoping to get gas). As well, thanks to some of the highest taxes in the developed world, French Canadians/Quebecoises have lower disposable incomes than most other Canadians. This renders more expensive destinations (ie Florida) which require an extra day driving or air travel not feasible for their yearly fun in the sun vacations. So for families, VA BCH is popular as much for cost as it is for its warm water beaches (as SCM points out). Most stay in hotels, but from just casual conversations with various people around here apparently camping is also quite a popular and inexpensive option. To sort of support that from another persective, single people or couples with no children will vacation in Cuba. Its is a very popular destination for them for the same reasons VA BCH is for families, its cheap. You can pay 2/3 the price for a week-long stay at a nice resort there than at some other more more developed/popular Carribean spots with medicore accomodations. A more recent reason for the uptick in Canadian visitors of all language stripes is the increase in the value of the Canadian dollar relative to the US Dollar. About 4 years ago the exchange rate was ~ 0.65 USD = 1 CAD (which made me feel rich when I visited, haha...) Now, its about 0.86 USD = 1 CAD. That's about a 25% increase and the price has largely been witin that 0.83-0.88 for about a year now, so visiting the US becomes quite a bit cheaper for Canucks. Virginia Beach used to be very proactive with its promotion in this market, especially in terms of developing a family friendly brand. I remember the first time I was visting Montreal and I had this surreal moment when I was watching a French language morning show and during the commerical breaks there would be these occasional TV ads for Virginia Beach. There was even one advertising the Beach as a 4 season destination (it showed the Christmas boardwalk drive thingy). I asked my wife (then girlfriend) about it and she said it was common to see ads for them in winter/early springtime, but she hasn't seen as much marketing here in the last 5-6 years as maybe there used to be (I'm not usually up early enough in the morning to verify this information... *cough*).

Hahaha... And here I thought only Quebec was retarded enough to come up with a legislative tax plan as ridiculous as this one. Leave it up to politicians scared to lose their jobs to come up with such an inefficient and moronic plan. Planning commissions - Just what the state needs, mini VDOTs! More state employees moaning about low pay, more pensions and healthcare costs for the state, more red tape, less oversight. Really, what's not to like??? Tolls - Woohoo! Now everyone's favorite taxation method is back... Oh wait, no, no it isn't. Inefficient in oh so many ways, only a politician could love them! Taxing a service (car repairs) - This will be the start of the slow path towards taxation of all services, bank on it. Taxing Real Estate Sales- Sure, cause cars and houses.. uhh... have something in common. Why not tax people who buy mailboxes, keyboards, or chocolates? Increase taxes on car rental fees - Always a sure-fire cop-out. Tax the people who have no say, the tourists and businessmen (particularly popular the world over)! One-time 1- percent registration fee, until they need more money and it becomes a 2 percent registration fee, and then a 3 percent registration fee; or that one time becomes once yearly. Save yourselves the time and just fully reinstate the yearly motor vehicle property tax. The only part of the plan that isn't abominably stupid is earmarking surpluses from the general fund to transportation, and yet that is the one that will receive the most conflict, and is the one part of transportation funding the Pilot has consistently advocated against. If they are hell bent on raising taxes, the most efficient and fair way is simply to raise the tax on gasoline and diesel. You ensure that both residents and businesses that use the roads most pay the most for them. Increase it by 30 cents per gallon and they'll have all the money they need to give to VDOT, who will work their hardest to ensure they mismanage it. You don't have to create more bureaucratic institutions, or hire more state employees, or create red tape. You simply change a number in a few computers and be done with it. You'll also discourage people from driving huge gas guzzling vehicles, also doing the environment a favor.

Norfolk already has a daily non-stop to Vegas with Southwest. The Canadian demand is seasonal, May-Sept. As well, from my experience, many people here in Quebec prefer to drive down because it saves them money. My wife had about 3 people from her office come down last year, and all of them had families and all of them drove. Flying down and paying for a rental car is much more expensive than driving down in most cases.

bs... I'll take numbers pulled out of my a$$ for $25 million, Alex. Lil-Bear, enjoy your second major tax increase in 4 years. Ever wonder why the state started running ~$1B surpluses around the time they raised taxes by ~$1B? See all those pet projects Kaine has proposed to spend money on? See the state's discretionary spending % going up faster than tax revenue growth? Hear that sound? That's the sound of Richmond sucking down a larger portion of your money...

Sounds an awful lot like some other folks in HR that built their houses next to a certain area that produces a lot of noise and then complained about it.....

Recent? He's been an a$$hat since the day he arrived on city council. He's a bigot, a racist, and an embarrassment to the city. Of course, I guess every city has to have a town idiot of some notoriety on their local government council... As far as the development of the school board property, I think that was mentioned somewhere else in an official capacity, that it is an eventuality. But I imagine with all the all capital projects going on, that tearing down and building a new school board building is a couple of years down the line. The city might also be saving that space for a truly impressive building/client, like a company headquarters or something of the like, should the opportunity present itself.

Nice photos, but I have a request. After seeing the Taiwanese Gazebo and the same downtown buildings for about the 800 different time, can someone run out and shoot some of the stuff going on at ODU, Ghent, and Ocean View and Willoughby Spit areas? Seems we hardly ever (if not ever) get pictures from those locales.

Anyone know if there are renderings of these two facilities?

too bad it was preseason.

Low cost is relative here. The original estimate to build a mile of ODU type maglev was around $25 million per mile of track. The Maglev in Shanghai, China cost about $63 million dollar per mile. The problem right now is that at $63 million per mile is not feasible as a means of mass transport. The price has to come down significantly before it could be widespread. The ODU maglev system was supposed to do that. It remains to be seen how it will all shake out.

Well basically, since the mid-80's several things happened. First, as you point out, people moved out of Norfolk due to crime, low school standards, and better housing in Virginia Beach (this had been happening since the mid-70's actually). Then when Virginia Beach started to get crowded, people from Norfolk and Portsmouth moved to Chesapeake, and the population there boomed. Now Northern Chesapeake is crowded with suburbs and so people are moving to Northern Suffolk. In the very early-90's I-264 was essentially extended west (called I-664)and a new bridge tunnel was built along the Chesapeake/Suffolk border to Newport News. Now, northern Suffolk is just a quick interstate hop away from the entire region. Norfolk: You'll remember Granby Street and downtown Norfolk from the mid-80's. Not a very nice place at all. Well, in the mid-90s the current mayor did several things, first he got the Norfolk Tides a new stadium just east of downtown in the early 90's (he was a city counselor at the time). Then, in the most controversial of all the developments that have come since, the city of Norfolk agreed to largely finance the building of a huge new mall in downtown Norfolk (MacArthur Mall) in the late 90's to the tune of several hundred million dollars. Despite lots of people saying it would be a huge bust, it wasn't. In fact, its done pretty well. The focus was on upscale stores the region didn't have many of, or at all. Some of the stores failed, some did ok (such as Nordstrom's, Aldo's, etc.), and some have done spectacular (Restoration Hardware, Williams-Sonoma). The mall has more than generated enough taxes and income for the city to pay down the debt they took on. The Waterside, as expected, lost business to the mall, though it was able to successfully refashion itself into a restaurant and night clubbing spot. In fact, the mall was the best thing that ever happened to Waterside. For the first time in its existence, the city Norfolk stopped paying out subsidies around 2000 and actually began to take in net tax revenue. Along with the national trend of increased interest in living in downtown space, Norfolk followed along and lots of new residential construction followed. TCC also built a campus downtown, which brought a lot of students to the Granby St. corridor. So along with those new residents and students came new restaurants, shops, and other business such that DT Norfolk's property values more than tripled in like a 6 year period. Ocean View: The Ocean View area as you know it still exists in some areas. However, a comprehensive plan to redevelop it in the mid-90's took shape and a large section of the east-beach was razed and redeveloped into (IMHO) some of the region's finest homes (with prices to match). Most of those homes have been sold in the last 2 years. Norfolk Public Schools has also turned itself around, partly in thanks to SOLs, partly in thanks to better pay and better leadership. It has won several awards for inner-city education improvement. Crime is down very significantly since you last lived in the area (following the national trend). Several large shipping companies have located their American headquarters to Norfolk, though the Ford plant announced last year that it is closing soon. Trader Publishing is also locating its national headquarters downtown (see the thread on their new building construction). Other Areas of Norfolk have also been redeveloped or changed a lot. ODU is still in the midst of a huge capital expansion project, but has already completed a new 8,500 seat arena primarily for basketball and concerts, and graduations. It also recently agrees to start raising funds for a new football team (I-AA). See thread on ODU development for more info. =============== Portsmouth: Unfortunately, only some moderate redevelopment and positive change has taken place here. Most notable would be the tearing down of the Fairwood Homes subdivision and the subsequent reconstruction of middle-income homes, Mid-City being raised for a new Wal-Mart and other stores (the shopping complex had long since been almost completely vacant), the tearing down of Tower Mall and redevelopment as big box retailers and smaller stores around them, the huge new Maersk-Sealand Shipping Terminal being built as we type and read, and some other redevelopment in the city (some parts of Port Norfolk, etc), but nothing on the scale of Norfolk's residential transformation. Virginia Beach: From 1980-2000 VB added almost 200,000 residents, many from Norfolk. Mostly, it was built out as suburbs and that process still continues, though it is slowing. As a result of running out of land in northern Virginia Beach, in the last 5-6 years the city finally decided to start building up rather than out. The result has been the creation of Towne Center in the Pembroke area. You can read about all the developments there in the VB section. Also of note would be the new convention center that is scheduled to open soon. Chesapeake: Really in the phase that VB was in the mid-80's to early 90's, ie. still more suburb development mostly and quick population growth, though beginning to slow.

I second that!

Looks like he is constipated, lol.

I worked as an Intern at Paine Webber in Columbus building and can remember everything around it being trees. I remember when Barnes and Noble and Bed Bath and Beyond were going up and when the backside of the columbus center building was just trees except for some well kept grass just around the building where all the smokers could go walk around. It is sad on one hand to see what small piece of forest that was left in northern Va Beach come down, but on the other hand the city is now building upwards in that part of the city rather than building outwards.

LOL!!!

Lol, this type of thing isn't limited to the South my friend. Come spend some time up here in Quebec and you'll get to see a real dose of political back scratching, backdoor deals, and borderline corruption.

At present, Norfolk, and the area in general have a pretty fair record when it comes to this type of thing. There really are far worse areas around the U.S. and indeed in other developed countries where the profusion of backdoor deals, etc. are rigueur du jour. I think the decision to elect Norfolk's mayor directly was an especially bad one. The old system of choosing from the city council helped keep this type of thing in check on the mayor's side. Remember how they talked him not having any additional powers as is current? And now of course there is talk about increasing the powers of the mayor since he is elected directly. As well, I fear with a racially divided city like Norfolk, future mayoral races will see the return of race into politics. And whenever I come down, one of the first places I head to is Nordstrom's. Anthony products for men for their razor burn repair and shower gel (and far cheaper than Olgivy's here) and their white t-shirts, which ironically enough are made in Canada (the elastic collars don't stretch as badly as others brands over time). I also browse their tie and shirt (dress) section. I like the Nordstrom brand shirts a lot as they are good quality and not terribly expensive for a college student.

3-4 different people (plus families, etc. ) from my wife's office (about 50 people) are coming down to VB this summer. This is about twice the normal that go down. Part of it is the higher CAD and the higher price of gas, which is causing some of them to stop further north than they might otherwise go. I think a seasonal daily direct flight with a regional jet (Embraer/Bombardier) from Dorval would be profitable enough for an airline to pursue.

My understanding is that the German technology is quite different than the one at ODU, and also much more expensive (which is probably why it works). So while I'm sure they could provide some experience and incite, from the standpoint of the German engineers it would be a waste of time and resources when they could be concentrating on their own work.

I must have ate there about 6 times, last time was when I was down last June. Sad to see it go, hopefully something can take its place.