Arctic_Tern

That would really hurt regional transit in my opinion. You'd have cities playing hot potato, trying as hard as they can to go as little into other cities as possible. This of course promotes more stagnation and division between the cities and would basically eliminate any possibility of light rail building past the boundary of Norfolk.

If it isn't the skate shop, then it'd probably be JHANÉ’S Sweet Lounge http://www.norfolk.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/2740?fileID=6291

Random Tidbit. It looks like the poem that is on the two wooden (?) towers on each side of the building facing Waterside Drive can be found here: https://www.cardcow.com/290051/poem-about-virginia-poems/ Not sure if they're still planning on using that, but found it just in case.

Also, I did some digging around the Waterside District website, and I found this PDF: http://www.watersidedistrict.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/WatersideDistrict-EventsReferenceGuide-2017.pdf It looks like a presentation to advertise their ability to host private events (of up to 6000 people combined!), but it has some awesome renderings of The Market, The Harbor Club, The Blue Moon Taphouse, as well as a floorplan for the 1st and 2nd floors! Although, to my eye, it looks like the 1st floor still has a bunch of open space where unannounced tenants will go, and the 2nd floor layout looks like it was clipped from a larger layout (I also doubt that the 2nd floor will just be the Harbor Club). The last slide features another Cordish property (I think Baltimore?) that has floating eating areas. That looks like a great use of the water! Why haven't we seen that in the Waterside proposal yet? I'm really interested to see what else is going to be announced in the coming weeks. Less than 9 weeks until it's supposed to open.

I could see City Council being wary of a Cordish Apartment Complex due to a couple of concerns. - Possible saturation of the market. Norfolk has added more than 1000 rooms to the Downtown apartment scene in the past few years. This is an amazing growth, but most of these apartments are already at the higher end when it comes to rent ($1250+/month). Council might want to see how the Icon does before adding another luxury apartment complex. - Protecting of previous investments. The city has invested heavily in projects like Waterside and The Main. Since a tower built at the annex site would partially block the views of the water from The Main, there could be a worry about hurting a relationship with that developer as well as devaluing a quality property bringing new business into Norfolk. It's also my personal belief the reason the last Waterside project ultimately went sour was because it grew too quickly without gaining a proportional amount of new customers. They could want to guard against doing the same thing with Waterside again. - Relationship with Cordish. Waterside has long been a beleaguered project and Cordish hasn't made things easy, at least for the full length of the relationship it has had with the city. Don't forget, this is a project that has been through multiple iterations with long delays and problems with financing. The City may be a bit hesitant to grant Cordish a prominent sky-line tower without seeing how their follow-through with Waterside is first. Ultimately, I think that the tower at that location could be a good thing, especially if it encourages development along the rest of the waterside through past Harbor Park. If this tower does happen, I would hope the city would make some improvements to make pedestrian traffic move easier between Waterside and Main/Granby St. Bruce Thompson mentioned the idea of a pathway between The Main and Waterside that would go through the parking lot of the customhouse at the bottom of this article ( http://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/commercial-real-estate/developer-arts-extravaganza-to-mark-opening-of-the-main/article_8c11044f-dc9b-5975-8963-e875bd103404.html ), and it's an idea that I very much enjoy. Put a parking garage behind the customhouse, and made that parking lot into a beautiful walkway/parklet and you might finally see some connectivity within downtown of all its jumbled parts.

According to the linked article: "Downtown Norfolk has seen vacancy rates in Class A and B product drop from 32.6 percent in third-quarter 2015 to 12.9 percent in third-quarter 2016." The rest of the article talks about Buddy Gadams, Cordish and other downtown developments. But WOW, a 20% drop in vacancy in a year? that's pretty impressive.

If Virginia Beach continues to reject the arena plan, I could see Norfolk putting it where Military Circle Mall is today. It looks like it could fit into the Military Circle master plan in between the two proposed light rail stations. Could be something to jumpstart the urbanization of the area.

Penny-wise and Pound-foolish. What you do when you require people to transfer from one mode to another (hell, even one train to a *different type of train*!!!), you're creating a barrier that limits how many people will ride it. If the light rail system gets built out fully, you could have an uninterrupted system that stretches from the oceanfront to the naval base and connects two of the biggest downtowns of Hampton Roads. That is worth a lot more than saving pennies on maintenance costs.

At the very least it's going to have quite the presence on Monticello Ave. I was a bit worried about this project, but those renderings make me more optimistic.

I could see the Tide moving past there if they do the eastern route of expansion. Maybe improvements can be made to Miller Store Road? Would love to have an IKEA in the area though.

In a recent report talking about dominion boulevard, upgrading to an interstate was mentioned several times. No timetable though. EDIT: Also, here's a quote from the second article NFKJeff posted: "I-87 will eventually begin at the I-64/I-464 interchange in Chesapeake following U.S. 17 into North Carolina." I remember a few months ago there was considerable push by Virginia Congressmen/Senators to get the Interstate part of the transportation bill passed since it would include this connector.

Thou Shalt Grow posted a new update on Waterside: http://www.thoushaltgrow.com/ Here's the full PDF: http://www.norfolk.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/2429?fileID=5578 New information about the project can be gleamed from this application for architectural review. First of all, it looks like the roof will now be grey instead of blue. It also looks like there's going to be a Bocce ball court in the bottom left of the complex. The area to be demolished is being called a "Multifunctional Area", which it appears will house the surface lot parking along with "special events". There's also a ton of little things that are in the report, so I'd suggest you give it a look through. A good number of renderings I don't think we've seen before are also in it.

You mean Bold Mariner?

They'll probably wait a little while. One of the things that the Main is selling are the views, and if waterside had a 15-25 story tower, that'd impact that view at least a little. Norfolk City Council probably won't allow it up until they think that the Main has gotten its due diligence.

It's possible they couldn't/didn't want to fill those spaces without potentially diluting the quality of the experience. It also gives them the flexibility to do what they choose if this place does gangbusters and they want to expand. If they can do something useful with the space in the meantime (stage, greenspace, park, rockwall, etc) then I think it could be a net positive.

Wasn't that supposed to become some sort of apartment complex? Is that still the plan? I haven't heard anything about this project for a while.

I doubt that that is the end of this proposal. Once ODU has the study done this summer I'd expect Ballard to propose a similar, if not identical, stadium design for review.

I would've loved to see some interior renderings, because the exterior ones leave something to be desired. Although, it is a more procedural graphic than the ones published in public statements. Right now I'm just wondering what their plan is. We don't really know of any of the tenants, except for Starr Hill. I guess there'll be a marketplace, so I presume there'll be a large interior space that can be used for farmers markets and the like. But what else can compliment a marketplace and a brewery? Some restaurants? I still want to have hope for this project, but I'm worried with it's trajectory right now.

The renderings look very nice but a max capacity of 35K seems like it'd be really constraining. Especially if ODU has dreams to move to a bigger conference. Hopefully ODU officials have a plan in their back pocket with this plan in how they'd expand. Maybe for the next few years they'll be buying up the properties right next to the stadium so they can expand it in the future.

On one of the recent agendas, there was a motion to zone the area as the "St. Pauls Redevelopment Area", but wasn't voted on due to a request for removal by the member that suggested it. I'll see if I can find it.

There's also a proposed plan on Norfolk's end that would make Harbor Park the "Union Station", with Light Rail going to Norfolk, VB and Chesapeake, Amtrak to Richmond/DC/etc, and a trolley down to downtown Portsmouth. I think Harbor Park is a more natural "Union Station" for Hampton Roads, but for the VB section, Town Center makes sense as their "Union Station".

I'm not too worried about it. A few council members can spout tons of hot air, but I don't see a referendum happening.

Yeah, and didn't Alchemy NFK relocate to the Work|Release building? That segment of granby seems to be thriving under the NEON banner.

The problem with turning it into a VB like Town Center is that VB's is their entire urban focus, while Norfolk already has a downtown. With the current efforts of revitalizing downtown and Fort Norfolk I'm not sure if they've got the resources to do it right. Now, a Hampton-like Towne Center could work, make it more of a family entertainment area to take advantage of all the neighborhoods around the area. It's less 'sexy' than a more urban development, but I think there's a market for it in Norfolk that isn't being satisfied, and it'd probably do better there than in downtown.

Oof. You sure they aren't trying to get a 'breakfast district' going? Handsome Biscuit, Toast and Waffletina all within throwing distance. Maybe they can come up with a shared parking lot to facilitate all the business that'll be coming their way.