Virginia Beach Development

[urbanvb]

So if Trader Joes is going there would they still put another location up on the Sifen property? I'm getting really confused about who is actually going there.

Good question. I am really wondering now if Whole Foods is coming after all.

[rusthebuss]

Good question. I am really wondering now if Whole Foods is coming after all.

Retail is hard to judge. Look what happened at the power plant in Hampton. There was a building skeleton and then the Kmart backed out.

[occasio]

Beach council approves plan for mixed-use project

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Adding to our sprawl.

Do we need another Kohl's in the area. They need to think outside of the comfortable box they live in.

[Telmnstr]

Do we need another Kohl's in the area. They need to think outside of the comfortable box they live in.

Like so many other companies that come to the area (drug stores, Sonic), if we get one... there is 16 more on the way!

[vaceltic]

This link has some interesting PDFs of VB's Oceanfront design guidelines:

http://www.vbgov.com/dept/planning/guideli...7,23405,00.html

[metalman]

A friend of ours who runs a shop in Pembroke mall said that the "Freight Liquidators" wing will be torn down this month! As was mentioned before they they will be redoing it as an outdoor pedestrian village-y kind of thing. I'm assuming a la Penninsula Town Center (Colisium Mall)

[urbanvb]

A friend of ours who runs a shop in Pembroke mall said that the "Freight Liquidators" wing will be torn down this month! As was mentioned before they they will be redoing it as an outdoor pedestrian village-y kind of thing. I'm assuming a la Penninsula Town Center (Colisium Mall)

This month eh. And hopefully a rendering will be released shortly too. Thanks for the tip, metalman!

[urbanvb]

It might not be tall but this is one HUGE hotel at the Oceanfront going up. I just noticed the west end was chopped off so what you see if not all of it. The rendering reminds me of the one that was cancelled last year.

[vdogg]

Nah, the one cancelled last year was all nice and curvy glass. I swear though that there is a hotel on the oceanfront that looks exactly like that already.

[TBurban]

I think there is, and as a matter of fact I think its one of the other Marriots! Thats the third hotel theyve got down there. I guess business must be pretty darn good

[vdogg]

a matter of fact I think its one of the other Marriots!

It is! You'd think they'd come up with a slightly different design.

[vdogg]

Courtyard by Marriott Oceanfont north This is the one that's already down there, also designed by CMSS, go figure.

[rusthebuss]

Courtyard by Marriott Oceanfont north This is the one that's already down there, also designed by CMSS, go figure.

Well all of there designs are suburban and very bland. I think if we actually pushed for ODU to start a architectual program we could get a some better renderings from these people! Well that might not change it either.

[vdogg]

Well all of there designs are suburban and very bland. I think if we actually pushed for ODU to start a architectual program we could get a some better renderings from these people! Well that might not change it either.

But lately i've been fairly impressed with their designs and had hope that they were actually getting better, then something like this comes along and I start to question whether that hope is misplaced.

[urbanlife]

Well all of there designs are suburban and very bland. I think if we actually pushed for ODU to start a architectual program we could get a some better renderings from these people! Well that might not change it either.

I probably would of stayed in Hampton Roads if ODU had a program......when I talked to them about it back in the late 90's I was told there was some rumors that they were putting together an architecture program, but it wouldn't be up and running till after 2010. I don't know if they are still pursuing that, but they really should. Hell that college should of gotten an architecture department 50 years ago.

I think one of my goals in life would be to open a private architecture school in Hampton Roads, it would be sweet to have a SCI-Arch of the east over there or something. If that area had a good architecture college, it would begin to effect the architecture in that area on a small and large level.

[hoobo]

Several of the new hotels on the Strip look the same. They all employ the wonderful three-tower design with a center elevator tower and stairwells at the ends.

[erdogs]

I really love the three tower design! Even more than the two tower design, witch is my second favorite. Edited October 9, 2006 by erdogs

[vaguynny]

Well all of there designs are suburban and very bland. I think if we actually pushed for ODU to start a architectual program we could get a some better renderings from these people! Well that might not change it either.

Hampton University has had a great school of architecture since the 1930s. I really wish that the alumni from the school of architecture would stay in the Hampton Roads area. Many alumni such as myself, head off to other areas where the opportunities are much greater than Hampton Roads. A lot of great work comes from Hampton Unviersity but it seems like the HR area really doses not reach out to HU, and HU really dose not seem to embrace the Hampton Roads. Washington DC, Atlanta, New York Metro and California gets all the Hampton University school of Architecture alumni.

[urbanvb]

For Beach, property's a steal at $900,000

The City Council voted to purchase this property at 17th Street and Pacific Avenue at the Oceanfront.

VIRGINIA BEACH - The shell of the brick building at 17th Street and Pacific Avenue doesn't look like it's worth $900,000.

But city leaders say they see the site - they call it Pepper's Restaurant, although the name McKinney's still hangs from the building - as more than a faded marquee, an old menu board and a vacant interior.

They see premier Oceanfront real estate at the eastern end of Virginia Beach Boulevard, one of the city's main thoroughfares.

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[urbanlife]

17th should be much more dense than what it is today, really it should be the Ghent for Virginia Beach. Plus it would open up retail that connects to but doesnt run parallel to the ocean.

Would be sweet if we started seeing major changes happen to that area soon.

[metalman]

I just saw news story about this online on Channel 3. They basically said that the city council bought the bar in order to keep another bar from going there. There are no plans for the building, but because Meyera doesn't want those roudy kids hanging at the oceanfront she and 7 other councilmen bought the bar instead of enforcing laws and codes for proper bar and restaurant activities.

For my/our tax dollars to go towards paying for an establishment to avoid one going there sounds assanine. So, that property will sit vancant for years to come and be the very blight that the city is trying to get rid of.

That doesn't sound smart to me.

[urbanvb]

Somehow I doubt it will set idle too soon. Developers in the area are all too ready to propose something new to put there, hopefully something nice and urban that is also BRAC friendly.

[vdogg]

urban that is also BRAC friendly.

I didn't know urban and BRAC friendly could go in the same sentence.

[erdogs]

Is that legal for the city to have a bar on their property? Is that a conflict of interest? I'm no lawyer, just seems a little dubious.

[lil-bear]

Well the city does own the ampitheater! They sell booze, so I don't think there is a conflict of interest.