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Westin Aloft and residences

vdogg

By vdogg
in Virginia Beach

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varider Town

varider

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Yahh construction is about to start! Except not on the building..... Block 9 is getting a park!! (:

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/03/sour-economy-will-green-town-center-temporarily

While waiting for the economy to sputter back to life, officials at Armada Hoffler, the construction company that owns most of Town Center, have decided to improve the look of the block, which is part of the delayed project’s $218 million next phase.

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vdogg Megalopolis

vdogg

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Yahh construction is about to start! Except not on the building..... Block 9 is getting a park!! (:

http://hamptonroads....ter-temporarily

While waiting for the economy to sputter back to life, officials at Armada Hoffler, the construction company that owns most of Town Center, have decided to improve the look of the block, which is part of the delayed project’s $218 million next phase.

Yep, crappy development. You can pretty much write 2010 off now for Town Center. <_<

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ronsmytheiii Hamlet

ronsmytheiii

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Think of the glass half full, Armada Hoffler is paying to open up their private property to the public instead of leaving it a perpetual pre-construction eyesore, that is more than we can say about most developers. I could foresee temporary vendors and live performances, not a bad idea for publicity when trying to secure financing by showing vibrant public use already happening.

Edit: too bad the building can't be built in phases, the vacancy rate for condos at the Westin maybe high, but the hotel is doing quite well so I would imagine that the aLoft would do so as well. I would not be surprised if this building is redesigned and they slash the number of apartments. Not that I would like that happening, but right now I am bracing for a redesign this year.

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urbanfan Hamlet

urbanfan

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The project is not going to get redesigned. It already went through a course of redesign and it was submitted to city council. The documents are already in standby-contruction mode.. Open this link

Beatty, Harvey, Coco Architects, LLP .. Go to porfolio and than On the boards.. U will see the design is already chosen

I design building all the time that go for permitting and than the owner changes his mind wants to do things differently and we completely redesign the buildings. Happens all the time, it's the nature of the game. Redesign happens more often than not. The owner finally gets the price tag and has sticker shock. How about we whack this off and get rid of this. It's called (Value Engineering), and it's a part of every construction project. Most are typically done early, but many do change even after construction has been set in motion. I expect a design change to get the project to a profitable stand point before construction starts again. It's the nature of the business.

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varider Town

varider

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Edit: too bad the building can't be built in phases, the vacancy rate for condos at the Westin maybe high, but the hotel is doing quite well so I would imagine that the aLoft would do so as well. I would not be surprised if this building is redesigned and they slash the number of apartments. Not that I would like that happening, but right now I am bracing for a redesign this year.

The Westin has condos, this is apartments. Town Center's major apartment complex, the Cosmopolitan, is near 100% occupied.

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HarryVB Whistle-Stop

HarryVB

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Yeah which means people are dying to get into town center to live, play and work.. I think they will start breaking ground on the project really soon. They are moving the trailer that was promoting westin condos for sale. I guess that means the Weston condos are completely occupied. Which means they need more room for residences. Cosmo is a major residential development that is 99% occupied and the lofts are 75% occupied. people don't wanna buy they wanna rent because of today's economy..

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ronsmytheiii Hamlet

ronsmytheiii

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Yeah which means people are dying to get into town center to live, play and work.. I think they will start breaking ground on the project really soon. They are moving the trailer that was promoting westin condos for sale. I guess that means the Weston condos are completely occupied. Which means they need more room for residences. Cosmo is a major residential development that is 99% occupied and the lofts are 75% occupied. people don't wanna buy they wanna rent because of today's economy..

Did you even read the article? they are moving it to turn the lot into a temporary park

Furthermore, these is a 20% vacancy rate at the Westin, unless there was a sudden buying fest in the last month:

actually according to their website, there are exactly 32 vacant units. The Westin apartments are not doing that well as many are expecting.

http://www.residencesattowncenter.com/

On top of it all, many of the units which are paid for are not even being utilized...but are actually spec units being held on to in order to hopefully make a profit at some point in the future.

Hmm, here is a thought, perhaps the temporary park is there to make the view from the condos better, to sell more condos to raise capital to build the aLoft/residences next door?

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HarryVB Whistle-Stop

HarryVB

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Looks like there is a equipment out on the block. The house is stripped from the bricks and there is a huge pile of it.. The house is just black right now. Im guessing that is the material left from taking the brick away.. but looks like they are finally cleaning up the site. Hopefully ground breaking will be in july at the lastest

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urbanlife Town

urbanlife

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Looks like there is a equipment out on the block. The house is stripped from the bricks and there is a huge pile of it.. The house is just black right now. Im guessing that is the material left from taking the brick away.. but looks like they are finally cleaning up the site. Hopefully ground breaking will be in july at the lastest

Well if ground breaking you mean the ground breaking for the temporary park, I am guessing that will begin once they removed the house.

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vdogg Megalopolis

vdogg

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I heard today they are going to plant trees and plants/flowers. benches with a pond with a bridge crossing over it.. With coy fish, frogs/lily pads...

I'm sorry but, lol. I'm gonna need a source on this because whoever your source has been so far has never fed you any valid information. I have a tough time believing they're gonna build a bridge and a pond on something that they previously described as a temporary grassy area. They went out of their way to describe this area as Not being a park. Seems counterproductive to then turn it into the very thing they fear unless they intend this area to be something more than "temporary".

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HarryVB Whistle-Stop

HarryVB

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Haha yeah I know. I was just being sacastic. The developer is just wasting time.. But they are building this mass project in Porsmouth.. Armada Hoffler that is.. They are going to expand the mary view hospital and build a massive town center project where the old woodrow wilson highschool use to be... If they can get financing to do a project in the ghetto porstsmouth area.. They sure the hell can get finacing to expand the already famous town center of va beach.. what are they waiting for? Do they think highend retail will move into downtown portsmouth. yeah right

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varider Town

varider

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Haha yeah I know. I was just being sacastic. The developer is just wasting time.. But they are building this mass project in Porsmouth.. Armada Hoffler that is.. They are going to expand the mary view hospital and build a massive town center project where the old woodrow wilson highschool use to be... If they can get financing to do a project in the ghetto porstsmouth area.. They sure the hell can get finacing to expand the already famous town center of va beach.. what are they waiting for? Do they think highend retail will move into downtown portsmouth. yeah right

That was uncalled for, in my opinion.

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mikeas Hamlet

mikeas

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Haha yeah I know. I was just being sacastic. The developer is just wasting time.. But they are building this mass project in Porsmouth.. Armada Hoffler that is.. They are going to expand the mary view hospital and build a massive town center project where the old woodrow wilson highschool use to be... If they can get financing to do a project in the ghetto porstsmouth area.. They sure the hell can get finacing to expand the already famous town center of va beach.. what are they waiting for? Do they think highend retail will move into downtown portsmouth. yeah right

That area of Portsmouth isn't really Ghetto. It is across the street from the well respected Waterview neighborhood. There are many very expensive waterfront homes within a mile of Maryview Hospital.

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vdogg Megalopolis

vdogg

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Haha yeah I know. I was just being sacastic. The developer is just wasting time.. But they are building this mass project in Porsmouth.. Armada Hoffler that is.. They are going to expand the mary view hospital and build a massive town center project where the old woodrow wilson highschool use to be... If they can get financing to do a project in the ghetto porstsmouth area.. They sure the hell can get finacing to expand the already famous town center of va beach.. what are they waiting for? Do they think highend retail will move into downtown portsmouth. yeah right

Lets try and refrain from bashing other cities on this site please. That never ends well and is against site rule, which I'm sure your aware of.

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vdogg Megalopolis

vdogg

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I was riding by the block 9. Looks like they are driving piles into the ground.. not sure what is going on. I thought there was going to be a temp grass space which meant phase IV was on hold..

So you physically saw a pile driver actually driving piles into the ground, or you saw something that looks like it might be a pile driver but aren't sure yet?

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varider Town

varider

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Straight called that man out! haha

Wouldn't it be funny if one day HarryVB was actually right about something major and nobody believed him? Like a 40 floor tower announcement or something..? Haha..... remember the HardRock Hotel + Cafe? With the river in the middle? Remember the Versace and Apple stores in the Town Center? Ahhh.

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urbanlife Town

urbanlife

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Wouldn't it be funny if one day HarryVB was actually right about something major and nobody believed him? Like a 40 floor tower announcement or something..? Haha..... remember the HardRock Hotel + Cafe? With the river in the middle? Remember the Versace and Apple stores in the Town Center? Ahhh.

I would love to see a stand alone Apple store building somewhere in Pembroke. I would also love to see VB develop a commercial street into a high end shopping street...sort of VB's own version of Chicago's Miracle Mile. Then have another street or district that is full of galleries and artist lofts with possibly even an art and architecture college located there.

Now that would be an ideal dream for me to see happen with VB's downtown.

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