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MacArthur Mall REDEVELOPMENT (Proposed/Planning) City of Norfolk


carolinaboy

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Just me thinking out loud here. 

With apparent declining retail for MacArthur Mall (like a lot of malls), could it be possible to re-purpose most of the mall to act again as a catalyst for downtown growth?

  • keep the structured parking
  • get an urban Target in one of the anchor spaces
  • retrofit the building for better ground floor and street accessible retail for those retailers that can and want to stay
  • retrofit the building with the 15k to 18k multi-purpose arena.
  • retrofit the building to include a new convention center
  • use the vacant anchor lot for a concept like the Starwood proposal/idea
  • 2 light rail stops are in the immediate vicinity (no need to extend light-rail to not served areas)
  • rewards Hilton and other developers who have taken financial risks by locating downtown
  • right in the heart of downtown Norfolk
  • easy access from the interstates
  • Scope can stay as-is (historic/architecturally significant structure)
  • proximity to the waterfront
  • proximity to Granby Street and downtown commercial streets
  • could help spur redevelopment in SPQ
  • located centrally in the region
  • water/sewer/electric/fiber infrastructure probably in place (I figure a mall has to have quite a bit of water/sewer capacity available)
  • proximity to other attractions like Harbor Park, MacArthur Memorial, Nauticus and Battleship Wisconsin, Town Point Park, Scope and Chrysler Hall, Opera House, Chrysler Museum, Zoo, Botanical Garden, etc. (not stuck out somewhere where visitors don't have easy access to these things)
  • would bring a lot of people downtown for hotels, food, shopping, etc.
  • The arena could try to get MEAC, A-10, C-USA, NCAA tournaments

 

What say you?

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Knock down half the structure like they did with Waterside and redevelop the land in way that's integrated with the rest of downtown. Include pedestrian streets connecting the parking garages to light rail, Granby and new St. Paul's district. Replace dead, unwanted retailers with affordable housing in a desirable place to live. My two cents (that I say a lot)

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  • 2 weeks later...

The reporter was actually Kimberly Pierceall, but she and Jared Chalk didn't offer too many earth-shattering details. If I heard correctly, the city's Redevelopment and Housing Authority owns the land and building where Nordstrom sits, so they actually have a little say in the future of the property. 

Cathy Lewis mentioned a rumor that City Hall is looking to relocate to the Nordstrom space, but neither Kimberly or Jared could confirm. 

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5 hours ago, BFG said:

The reporter was actually Kimberly Pierceall, but she and Jared Chalk didn't offer too many earth-shattering details. If I heard correctly, the city's Redevelopment and Housing Authority owns the land and building where Nordstrom sits, so they actually have a little say in the future of the property. 

Cathy Lewis mentioned a rumor that City Hall is looking to relocate to the Nordstrom space, but neither Kimberly or Jared could confirm. 

This could be very good because that would mean they’re trying to free up land in their current location, which is at the end of it’s useful life and prime for demolition and replacement with a new office tower.

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  • 1 year later...

Hello Everyone I have great news! Weather you have heard it or not the MacArthur Mall is set to be redeveloped after serving 20+ years with us and giving the City of Norfolk over 4 billion in revenue! Sadly the malls time is here and sooner or later we might see the wrecking ball hit the Mall everyone of us has been too and everyone of us had made a memory at. 

Official City of Norfolk OPTIONS:

Option 1: Open up the ends and light up the exterior, Surviving mall parts turned into Office space.

Option 2: Leverage MacArthur Center’s valuable assets: a 23-acre central site, 4,000 structured parking spaces, 400,000 square feet of anchor buildings, and a third anchor parcel ripe for redevelopment. “De-mall” the center to reopen Market Street as a landscaped, pedestrian-friendly promenade lined with mixed-use buildings, including residential uses. Line City Hall Avenue with micro retail, craft manufacturing and small services and businesses.

Option 3 (Personally my Favorite) :Demolish MacArthur Center and build a new urban district with a street pattern that re-opens Bank and Court Streets to connect Scope and Chrysler Hall with Main Street and the Waterfront.

PROOF FOR PLANNING BY DOWNTOWN NORFOLK COUNCIL:5869b71b82b5619e0290c84ffafa6eef.png

 

I would like to say that Option 3 is my favorite because it puts a street grid right back into the Center of Norfolk! Imagine the amount of office/residential tower space there will be! This will add 6-8 new CITY BLOCKS. Lets hope if this does happen it wont be settled for plain 4-5 floor apartments like what they did to the SPQ planning!

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The thing with the mall is that its dead. Dont even try to defend it.....Its straight dead. Its time for replacement of the mall. Just imagine the various new open sites demolishing it could make. Within a few years we could have a actual city grid comparable to Richmond. Im glad the talks around the mall are popping up in news stories now

On 9/29/2021 at 11:15 AM, NFKfloodcaptain said:

From NFKVA dot com. 

"When Replacing MacArthur Center, Double Down on Downtown’s Wins"

https://nfkva.com/when-replacing-macarthur-center-double-down-on-downtowns-wins/

 

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Yep....We have a tendency to butter up the public and then throw them in the fire. Or in other words give them a great idea and then throw it away....I hope this mall project will keep advancing

3 minutes ago, Asdfjkl; said:

Legendary State of the City that was jam packed with projects that never happened. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

McArthur mall is undoubtedly in its last moments here. Stores are moving out and soon the wrecking ball (MIGHT?) be moving in... Im interested in what you guys think could replace it! 

Do you think we should finally start building our city-center full of towers or do you lean with the more mid-rise buildings?

Downtown Norfolk's future is important to most if not all of us. I really would like to see what yall have in mind as it joys me to think about new creativity and designs of what could be a vibrant East Coast city.

Edited by mintscraft56
Was misleading. Sorry to you guys that has to deal with it.
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46 minutes ago, zeppelin14 said:

Let's not start false rumors with "soon the wrecking ball will be moving in." There has been no movement or plans on the mall.

Its not a false rumor. Say what you want but the city has proposed 3 plans on what could go there. Each plan has proposed the demolition of some part of the mall or the entire mall as a whole. How about read up a little about it before you accuse me of "false rumors"

And if you want proof then here: 5869b71b82b5619e0290c84ffafa6eef.png

 

Three plans are all they gave/ proposed. And I hope you do realize that the mall is not going to survive  at most through 2037 and the least being 2027-8.

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Just now, mintscraft56 said:

Its not a false rumor. Say what you want but the city has proposed 3 plans on what could go there. Each plan has proposed the demolition of some part of the mall or the entire mall as a whole. How about read up a little about it before you accuse me of "false rumors"

At this point it’s just city planning. The mall is not owned by the city so, unless they buy it, there’s not much they can do but draw up hypothetical plans. Saying the wrecking ball is moving in soon is grossly inaccurate. Realistically we’re years away from anything happening and will likely know the plan before any kind of demolition occurs. 

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2 minutes ago, HRVA said:

At this point it’s just city planning. The mall is not owned by the city so, unless they buy it, there’s not much they can do but draw up hypothetical plans. Saying the wrecking ball is moving in soon is grossly inaccurate. Realistically we’re years away from anything happening and will likely know the plan before any kind of demolition occurs. 

Yea I noticed it was off throwing with the use of words. But initially I just wanted to know what people wanted to put there be it a fever dream or realistic.

Alright I edited it to stop some confusion.

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As I said before, false rumors. Just because there are potential plans doesn't mean anything is happening. There are three proposals as well for Military Circle too. Doesn't mean crank up the wrecking ball just yet.

You just seem very antsy to get a conversation going just for the sake of keeping one going despite nothing happening. You can't force a conversation. When real news with this mall happens, then we will all talk. No need to push something that's not happening. 

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I understand the feeling tho, I love talking about planning and ideas for the City but we are the mercy of the City government and developers for new conversation fodder, and unfortunately those things move as slow as molasses. 

When it comes to what I would like to see, I just want to see more density that is walkable and mixed use, as well as the reinstatement of the city grid, at the very least in walkable form if not a driveable one. Norfolk suffers from the flow of the downtown being constrained by large projects like MacArthur Mall and the interstate, and hopefully this can be partially remedied by whatever happens with the mall in the coming decade.

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  • 2 months later...

Pembroke mall is really going places, I wonder what they will do with MacArthur mall in the coming future. Went to walk in the mall on saturday and found it something close to dead. Factors like the recent shooting(s) here in Norfolk and lots of the retail closing has lead to it being how it is now (I think?). Was pretty weird to see it that way. The mall its self is sill in good shape.

Edited by mintscraft56
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