Norfolk Development

[okinawatyphoon]

I just realized i forgot to post my Harbors Edge update. I went by there yesterday and they it seems like they have jacked up the one tower crane left on the site now to a pretty decent height. Also it seems like they are starting on the 4th floor of the main structure now.

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Good stuff to know, thanks!

[urbanlife]

courthouse buildings tend to cost a ton of money for a small number of floors. I would love to see Norfolk get a courthouse tower like what we have here in Portland, Or.

[okinawatyphoon]

Norfolk State

[Former Resident of HR]

courthouse buildings tend to cost a ton of money for a small number of floors.  I would love to see Norfolk get a courthouse tower like what we have here in Portland, Or.

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That is a beautiful courthouse... 300ft on the dot I think.

What brings you to the HR pages? I am from OR originally and go home to PDX every year. Each year it gets harder and harder to come back here lol. PDX is really becoming a cosmopolitan city w/o sacrificing the "small city feel".

This area is growing but sometimes it feels too fast paced and less friendly than Portland. This area doesn't have much "Southern Charm" (like Charleston or Raleigh). When my mom came here, she said how she was so surprised that she didn't hear many southern accents and how pushy people seemed lol. Good thing I didn't take her to NJ lol...

[burt]

I love Portland. And they have fountains all over the place. AND a wonderful light rail/trolly car system. AND a great, famous seafood restaurant whose name I have forgotten. Those North Pacific oysters are to die for.

And speaking of oysters, I hear they are coming back in the Chesapeake and its tributaries after years of decline caused by pollution.

[vdogg]

Just looking over the development archive at the beginning of the thread and I just realized that there is a highrise that supposed to be going up at the corner of Brambleton and duke that completely dropped off the radar screen. I don't think we've even talked about it in this thread. I think a lot of us confused.

A: Brambleton and Bute Apartments - two 7-story apartment buildings, 248 total units, rent $1,000 to $2,000/month

for

B: 14-story apartment building; site work underway.

But they are not the same project. Anyone have an update or know what the status of this one is? Here's a link to the full post Norfolk Development

[urbanlife]

That is a beautiful courthouse... 300ft on the dot I think.

What brings you to the HR pages?  I am from OR originally and go home to PDX every year.  Each year it gets harder and harder to come back here lol.  PDX is really becoming a cosmopolitan city w/o sacrificing the "small city feel". 

This area is growing but sometimes it feels too fast paced and less friendly than Portland.  This area doesn't have much "Southern Charm" (like Charleston or Raleigh).  When my mom came here, she said how she was so surprised that she didn't hear many southern accents and how pushy people seemed lol.  Good thing I didn't take her to NJ lol...

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I actually grew up (17 years, moved in 01) in VB over in First Colonial. PDX has definitely got that collection of small towns feeling to it. What will be really nice is when in the next ten years all the surface lots along 3rd and 4th get built into residential towers. PDX will really kick ass then.

[okinawatyphoon]

Just looking over the development archive at the beginning of the thread and I just realized that there is a highrise that supposed to be going up at the corner of Brambleton and duke that completely dropped off the radar screen. I don't think we've even talked about it in this thread. I think a lot of us confused.

A: Brambleton and Bute Apartments - two 7-story apartment buildings, 248 total units, rent $1,000 to $2,000/month

for

B: 14-story apartment building; site work underway.

But they are not the same project. Anyone have an update or know what the status of this one is? Here's a link to the full post Norfolk Development

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Hey vdogg, I asked my friend at Norfolk Planning about this, but I used the information on granbystreet.com, which said:

"B: Brambleton/Duke Project

Status: Site Work Underway

A high-density residential project with multi-level residential towers with as many as 114 rental apartments and courtyard parking. For more information: Kotarides Developers"

And my friend said: "It's a project still in the speculative stages. They would buy and develop the City-owned parking lot at the SW corner of Brambleton and

Duke."

So, I'm guessing that we had incorrect info from before.

[okinawatyphoon]

French shipper dedicates reloacted headquarters in Norfolk

NORFOLK

[vdogg]

Hey vdogg, I asked my friend at Norfolk Planning about this, but I used the information on granbystreet.com, which said:

"B: Brambleton/Duke Project

Status: Site Work Underway

A high-density residential project with multi-level residential towers with as many as 114 rental apartments and courtyard parking. For more information: Kotarides Developers"

And my friend said: "It's a project still in the speculative stages. They would buy and develop the City-owned parking lot at the SW corner of Brambleton and

Duke."

So, I'm guessing that we had incorrect info from before.

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Ok, thanks. I'll update that as speculatinve. So ok, you have Harbor heights, Granby Tower, and this developement all making up part of our midtown skyline. Then you have the Hague to compliment midtown and Harbors Edge, which i'm not sure will show up on the midtown skyline at all (maybe from a different vantage point though). The vantage point i'm using is coming into downtown from Va. Beach on 264.

[rusthebuss]

INSIDER NEWS

Housing authority to get a makeover

By Philip Newswanger

Inside Business - Hampton Roads

Monday May 23, 2005

Overhauling the region

[willy]

From the article above "French shipper dedicates reloacted headquarters in Norfolk"

When ask by the Pilot.

Q. What were the advantages you saw in Norfolk?

One of the advantages was...

A. The second issue was the availability of labor and the support to train the new people that we would hire here, and generally the overall very nice surroundings and the labor climate that we are enjoying here.

Not a bad endorsement from the 5th largest shipping line in the world.

Also, when ask by the Pilot.

Q. Why did CMA CGM decide to relocate to Norfolk from New Jersey?

A. John Van De Merwe, chief executive officer of CMA CGM (America) Inc.: The company has been growing at a very rapid pace. We had Virginia Beach as the site of our back office operation in North America and Secaucus, N.J., as the site of our head office for North America. As the organization started to grow and the number of people started to accelerate, it became very clear that we needed to have a site where the senior management team as well as the back office and all aspects of the operation would be under one roof. ... With that, the search started for a suitable site that would accommodate us. The search ultimately ended up with the selection of Norfolk.

Gosh, Norfolk steals another one from Va. Beach. LOL, maybe VB should build a port too!

[okinawatyphoon]

From the article above "French shipper dedicates reloacted headquarters in Norfolk"

When ask by the Pilot.

Q. What were the advantages you saw in Norfolk?

One of the advantages was...

A. The second issue was the availability of labor and the support to train the new people that we would hire here, and generally the overall very nice surroundings and the labor climate that we are enjoying here.

Not a bad endorsement from the 5th largest shipping line in the world.

Also, when ask by the Pilot.

Q. Why did CMA CGM decide to relocate to Norfolk from New Jersey?

A. John Van De Merwe, chief executive officer of CMA CGM (America) Inc.: The company has been growing at a very rapid pace. We had Virginia Beach as the site of our back office operation in North America and Secaucus, N.J., as the site of our head office for North America. As the organization started to grow and the number of people started to accelerate, it became very clear that we needed to have a site where the senior management team as well as the back office and all aspects of the operation would be under one roof. ... With that, the search started for a suitable site that would accommodate us. The search ultimately ended up with the selection of Norfolk.

Gosh, Norfolk steals another one from Va. Beach. LOL, maybe VB should build a port too!

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LOL yeah, as successful as Town Center is, it can't seem to get these big deals for some reason.

[vdogg]

LOL yeah, as successful as Town Center is, it can't seem to get these big deals for some reason.

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Well at least it should quiet some of those who so fervently believe that Va. Beach is trying to steal jobs from Norfolk.

[willy]

Well at least it should quiet some of those who so fervently believe that Va. Beach is trying to steal jobs from Norfolk.

Nah, it won't quiet anyone because Va. Beach still will try and steal jobs from Norfolk. And Norfolk will still try and steal jobs from VB or any other city if they can. The same goes for any other city in the metro, they all want to make their city better as a whole. They all want to increase tax revenue, income levels, population and for just general bragging rights. It's the nature if the beast. The same things happen in other metros where there is only one city surrounded by many counties. Each county wants to be bigger and better than the next and the core city also wants to better itself. They all want to say we have "blank" corporation based in our city/county.

[okinawatyphoon]

Nah, it won't quiet anyone because Va. Beach still will try and steal jobs from Norfolk. And Norfolk will still try and steal jobs from VB or any other city if they can. The same goes for any other city in the metro, they all want to make their city better as a whole. They all want to increase tax revenue, income levels, population and for just general bragging rights. It's the nature if the beast. The same things happen in other metros where there is only one city surrounded by many counties. Each county wants to be bigger and better than the next and the core city also wants to better itself. They all want to say we have "blank" corporation based in our city/county.

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Well said willy. Until we can work together as a whole (at least come up with a unified name for the region), there's always gonna be this competition. The merger of all the cities of Hampton Roads would help solve this, but it would be next to impossible.

[willy]

The merger of all the cities of Hampton Roads would help solve this, but it would be next to impossible.

When you said this it made me think of an Inside Business article from this weeks edition. Towards the end of the article you will see that we just might be moving away from the Hampton Roads name, at least nationally.

Note: I editied the article a little, so vdogg won't have to.

We?ve hit the charts

Hampton Roads recognized nationally as a best place for business

By Carol Lichti

Inside Business - Hampton Roads

Monday May 23, 2005

As many already know, the Norfolk metro area was among Forbes? top cities for best places for business and careers. Norfolk was No. 8 behind Boise, Idaho; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Austin, Texas; Washington, D.C.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Huntsville, Ala.; and Fayetteville, Ark., in that order.

The ranking means that this area is among the top 10 metros in the nation to start a business or career. That should be a good recruiting tool, whether it?s convincing home-grown companies and brain power to stay here or companies and potential employees from other areas to move here. The area was picked from the 150 largest metro areas in the nation as having a highly educated workforce and relatively low business costs. Virginia followed Texas with the most high-ranking metropolitan areas in the top 20. Texas had four and Virginia three ? the Northern Virginia-D.C. area was ranked fourth and Richmond 14th.

The rankings were based on scores for the percentage of engineers among the total employed; an index based on cost of labor, energy, taxes and office space; an index of the cost of housing, utilities, transportation and other expenditures; crimes per 100,000 residents; and an index based on museums, theaters, golf courses, sports teams and other activities. Forbes also looked at income growth, job growth and the net migration of people moving in and out of an area. (See accompanying chart.)

Forbes relied on Economy.com, a West Chester, Pa., research firm, to estimate business costs and living expenses, which included housing. The firm also assisted in determining education levels, job and income growth, and migration patterns of the cities. The culture and leisure index was determined with the help of Bertrand Sperling, a consulting firm in Portland, Ore.

Norfolk ranked eighth in income growth, a good sign considering that several years ago the area was known for being under the national per capita income average. Also helping boost the area are the large number of engineers we have and the area?s job growth. Hampton Roads ranked 20th in its percentage of engineers and 31st for job growth.

Northern Virginia-D.C. outscored Norfolk with better rankings for a low crime rate ? 47 to Norfolk?s 57; culture and leisure ? 7 to our 45; educational attainment ? 2 to our 79; job growth ? 20 to Norfolk?s 31; and net migration ? 35 to Norfolk?s 74.

Richmond outranked Norfolk only in the areas of educational attainment ? 29 to Norfolk?s 79 and net migration ? 54 to Norfolk?s 74.

Inc. magazine also gave the Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News metro area high marks for its business-friendly environment. The area ranked 13th out of 274 cities with Northern Virginia claiming a spot only two slots ahead at No. 11. The Richmond-Petersburg area was ranked 58th.

Norfolk ranked fourth among the large cities in Inc.?s report, 22nd for most balanced economy and growth, and 46th for fastest, most sustained growth.

The good news doesn?t stop there. Earlier this year, authors Bert Sterling and Peter Sander released the annual update of their book, Cities Ranked and Rated, revealing that Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News was listed No. 17. The ranking was based on economy and jobs, cost of living, climate, education, arts and culture, along with a factor for what the authors call intangibles and another for consistency across the categories.

Charlottesville was ranked No. 1, and the authors noted that college and university towns score high in their book. Roanoke came in at No. 11 and Lynchburg at No. 15 as the other cities that outranked Hampton Roads.

While it might not always be considered a positive in the area?s favor, the Virginia Beach-Norfolk metro area ranked No. 1 in a recent list of the American City Business Journals? ranking of cities most dependent on government jobs. Federal, state and local government paid 39.7 percent of the salaries and benefits of all employees in this area during 2003, the American Business Journals reported. Honolulu had the next highest with 35 percent. It was followed by the Texas cities of El Paso and McAllen and Bakersfield, Calif. Washington, D.C., ranked eighth with a little more than 30 percent of its workers employed in government positions.

One other thing it?s interesting to note about these lists ? none of them referred to this area as Hampton Roads. It was either Norfolk, Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News or Norfolk-Virginia Beach. But that?s a topic for another time.

Carol Lichti is the editor of INSIDE BUSINESS. She can be reached by calling 222-5349 or e-mail [email protected].

[vdogg]

Mods note: I am currently going through the process of updating the projects list at the beginning of this thread. I've already updated 2 but i'd like you guys to look over the projects list on page 1 and tell me of anything else i may need to update. I eventually plan on separating that out of this thread and creating a "Projects and construction Thread". This will be a "closed" thread meaning i won't be allowing any post in it. It will serve those who just wish to browse all the projects at once without having to weed through our comments.

[Former Resident of HR]

CMA CGM Group, based in Marseilles, France, decided last year to move the headquarters from Secaucus, N.J., to Norfolk, investing $11.5 million in the gleaming, green-glass building, which stands out among its brick-clad neighbors in the new office park off Military Highway and Princess Anne Road.

Resto Story

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I have to admit that for a mid-low rise rectangular building in such a bland setting, it is a very nice looking structure. Especially when viewed from the side where it curves in. Too bad it's in such an anonymous area.

[rusthebuss]

I have to admit that for a mid-low rise rectangular building in such a bland setting, it is a very nice looking structure.  Especially when viewed from the side where it curves in.  Too bad it's in such an anonymous area.

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What problem do you have with that area? Doesn't make a bit of sense to me? Are you in the military? Sounds like you are forced to be here and that is why you do not like it here.

[Former Resident of HR]

What problem do you have with that area? Doesn't make a bit of sense to me? Are you in the military? Sounds like you are forced to be here and that is why you do not like it here.

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Errrrr duhhhhhh not this area as a whole.

The Lake Wright/USAA office park area is hardly what I would call thrilling or exciting. It would have been cool if all those offices were in the CDB of Norfolk and not in the middle of nowehere. They are just high rise office parks with tons of parking lots, no retail, etc. I don't see people hanging out there on the weekends or showing it to out of town tourists. The whole area may as well be in VA Beach...

Because I think that particular area is boring doesn't mean I am "forced" to live here and no I am not currently in the military although I am a veteran (I hope that is not a problem for you, you know us military members giving up months and years of our lives to go and live in the Middle East and sometimes dying and stuff like that).

Seriously chill out. I think this area as a whole is fine. Certain areas are better than others but that is anywhere you go...

[willy]

A great article about CMA-CGM move to Norfolk.

Also, in the article it says that CMA-CGM will be adding 116 new headquarters jobs to go along with the existing 230 in VB.

Here's a little bit of the article. It seems Norfolk didn't steal anything from VB.

HQ Move Only 18 Miles

The 230 other headquarters positions, however, already exist - and not far away. Those jobs are presently situated in Virginia Beach, about 19 miles (30 kilometers) east of CMA-CGM America's newly chosen site in Norfolk.

The Virginia cities' proximity prompted a slightly sticky situation in the project's early stages.

CMA-CGM contacted the Norfolk Economic Development Authority (EDA), saying that it was interested in the city as a possible site for relocating its U.S. headquarters from Virginia Beach. Norfolk EDA Director of Development Roderick Woolard immediately followed up on CMA-CGM's call by again picking up the phone. This time, though, he called his economic development counterparts in Virginia Beach.

Virginia Beach officials, Woolard learned, were already working hard to keep CMA-CGM's U.S. base at its current location. That information prompted Norfolk officials to quietly pull back from the project. Norfolk didn't pursue further contact with CMA-CGM, waiting to see how its nearby neighbor's retention drive played out. Things soon played out disappointingly for Virginia Beach. CMA-CGM officials informed Virginia Beach officials that their city was out of the hunt. The U.S. headquarters for the world's fifth-largest container-shipping firm, they said, was definitely going to relocate, and it was headed to one of two cities: Houston or Norfolk.

[ace707]

Just re-affirms that just like Trader, these businesses make these moves on their own and that Norfolk is not ever interested in taking any business from VA. Beach. So I hope Va Beach can stop blaming other cities for loss of business simply because they're environment doesn't suit a particular company's needs. There are countless businesses to pursue, Trader and CMA CGM aren't the end to all things.

[ace707]

I have to admit that for a mid-low rise rectangular building in such a bland setting, it is a very nice looking structure.  Especially when viewed from the side where it curves in.  Too bad it's in such an anonymous area.

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I don't think that is an anonymous area because it has everything all office parks have and more. The Lake Wright Center is situated one of the regions busiest intersections, has a plentiful supply of hotel rooms in a short distance as well as rental car businesses, has one of the regions largest and busiest shopping corridors a few minutes away and literally outstanding highway access. Plus it has one special convenience that no other office park in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, or Downtown Norfolk have,.... Airport.

[willy]

That's exactly why CMA-CGM picked Norfolk over Houston & Va.Beach.

From the article:

Norfolk then presented CMA-CGM with potential area sites. One of them - the Lake Wright Executive Center - struck a strong chord. The business park sits adjacent to the Norfolk International Airport and I-64. And the Lake Wright Executive Center is only some seven miles (11 kilometers) from the Norfolk International Terminals, part of the Commonwealth State's peninsula terminals that collectively make up the Port of Virginia.

In addition, Lake Wright Executive Center had three hotels inside the park that were already open or were well into construction: Holiday Inn Select, the Norfolk Airport Hilton, and Residence Inn by Marriott. That further boosted the site's appeal. The park's housing options would improve time-efficiencies in shuttling executives in and out of a headquarters locale.