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Norfolk Off-Topic


vdogg

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Another downtown Norfolk office building sold, this time it's Town Point Center - The Virginian Pilot

This is at least the fourth office building sold Downtown this year. I find it encouraging that despite the vacancy that will occur as NS leaves, investors are still buying property and saying they will look for more in the area. This building was $150/SF and Dominion Tower was $190+/SF. Not crazy figures but certainly not bargains either. 

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On ‎12‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 7:43 AM, vdogg said:

I agree that this is not the catastrophe that we originally thought it was, but the city really needs to get it together before we do have a catastrophe that we can't recover from. Now is the perfect time to start looking at what type of businesses we really want downtown and how to attract them. I'm concerned that they're being a little too blase about all this.

If I'm not mistaken they only have a few floors...6 max..I work for NS but not downtown

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have made a minor adjustment. I’ve unpinned all the general discussion threads, including the light rail thread. I will only pin major project threads (those encompassing buildings 10-stories or higher or mid-rise projects that span several city blocks). I will keep the off-topic thread pinned so it’s easy to find. This should streamline things a bit and make it easier to find projects of interest.

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Came across a copy of “The Downtowner” newspaper and saw this article about The Fit Company’s plans to expand with an 18-story building in Chelsea. Here’s the Web link, rendering is below. 

http://www.downtowneronline.com/news01.html

I can’t see 18 stories working in Chelsea...Fort Norfolk would be great though. 

E6CDD1ED-E815-4C17-BC75-47428E56FA45.jpeg

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I used to live over there. Except for one gravel lot, I can't think of a single plot of land that would be large enough to accommodate the parking for an 18-story building. Chelsea doesn't get enough traffic to justify all that, and this would only create a mess.

The more I think about it, the more I wonder why no one else picked up this story. Even if this is real, I expect the planning commission to either downgrade it to under 10 stories, or nix the plans, at least for that neighborhood. I don't even think the hospital complex has an 18-story building.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Article from Insidebiz says that the Downtown Norfolk office market is healthy despite the lost of Norfolk Southern which is planning to be totally moved to Atlanta in 2021.

"Despite the looming exit of Fortune 500 company Norfolk Southern, real estate experts say they have many reasons to be upbeat about the state of office space in downtown Norfolk."

https://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/real-estate/article_25b920b2-2f11-11e9-9c5d-7fcfc131bf1a.html

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Browsing around the Gateway Tower thread, I noticed early posts from 3 years ago mention a twin tower rendering along a light rail line. I remember that, but didn't realize it was for Gateway. Anyway, looking through the designers' website, I found other renderings, including a few extras for the African History Museum and hotel project, and a very ambitious project near NSU. Pics are below; the NSU project appears to be near the corner of Brambleton and Park Ave., next to the RISE Center. If I'm not mistaken, there is a vacant lot next to that, which I guess would be the site of this project.

I don't know how much of this is legit, but it looks nice. If you check the slideshow, there's a few other renderings including a proposed expansion for the Scope, attached to another structure across the street.

https://www.egdinternational.com/?lightbox=dataItem-jr2l5pik

Screen Shot 2019-02-13 at 11.19.41 PM.png

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Screen Shot 2019-02-13 at 11.24.28 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-02-13 at 11.24.42 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-02-13 at 11.24.55 PM.png

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The core towers is most certainly new and recent. Still not sure what to make of this site. None of their designs seem to come to fruition. The only one that has actually been chosen by a developer is the one for the African history museum, and that is far from polished. It seems like people just go to this organization to farm out their initial ideas, and then go to other more established architects to finish them out. It's weird.

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I'm with you vdogg, I think you may be right. If that's the case then there must be a developer interested in this piece of land for a project of this size. 

It's very close to Pamuncky Casino site. Maybe this was the first concept and location prior to Harbor Park location. Looks kinda similar with one large tower and two smaller side by side towers....just a thought. 

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The bottom line is this, this site seems to have general knowledge of proposals coming down the pike, often years ahead of time, but is rarely accurate as to scope and final design of said projects. We can be confident that something is being thought of for that land, probably hotel/condo combo, but we can't be confident in size, scope, or timeframe. 

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I will say this though, there seems to be a general height increase in all the recent proposals downtown as opposed to a few years ago. This is probably reflective of an increase in land values. They've done a good job of making downtown more attractive.

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Hopefully there is something to it that sparks construction. Imagine driving along 264 into downtown and tall buildings near NSU and Harbor Park welcome you into the city. Then, you drive past St. Paul’s District, see more buildings including a remodeled state-of-the-art Scope, and head along Brambleton towards Fort Norfolk. Very exciting to think about. 

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Lets be honest most of these projects get scaled back or don't happen at all....I really want to see these happen but I just don't see them happening anytime soon

also these all might be thought of due to the possible casino being built by harbor park.....this would be right around the corner from it and the light rail stations being at both spots

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