Norfolk Development 2

[gosscj]

Wouldn't 140-150 rooms be pretty small anyways? At 10 rooms per floor, that only puts it at 14-15 stories. Hopefully it will have a reeeeaaaalllly small footprint... 3 rooms per floor and we could have our very first 50-story tower!!!!

[Greekboy80]

I think that Goggle may be closer than you think.

On the city website you can look at maps of the city and if you get close enough you can see satelite images.

I think that 120 W. York may be located between the Granby Tower site and the 10 floor office building at the corner of Boush and W. York.

No, Lil-bear, that picture is off. Zedd's is North of Bramblton on Granby. Google is way off on that one.

[Greekboy80]

Yeah but that's impossible. That building was torn down to make way for Granby Tower and no longer exists. Maybe they got the address wrong.

Its gotta be, somones address's are off...

[rusthebuss]

Zeds building is on a corner by vabeach blvd.

[lil-bear]

I actually drove to the part of W. York and looked at the numbers on the buildings.

The 10 floor building on the corner of Boush & W. York is 142 W. York, and a few doors closer to the Granby Tower site the building is 130 W. York.

So 120 W. York will be on the same side of those buildings. The lot is south across Brambleton Ave. from the Virginian Pilot Building and just West of the Granby Tower site, right next to it!

120 W.York is the location of the proposed hotel by the same hotel owner who bought the Zedd Building on Granby & Olney!

We are talking of two different parcels of land. Please read the article to get the full picture!

Edited December 14, 2006 by lil-bear

[lammius]

Its gotta be, somones address's are off...

Well Google and MS don't have parcel data with street address fields attached. What they do is they know street link X is the 100 block of Y Street. So if you type in 100 Y Street, the placemark will go at the beginning of the link, 199 Y Street will be placed at the end, and 120 will be placed about 1/5 of the way down the link. This address "geocoding" is meant to give an approximate location. It has no capability of being exact.

Many city and county governments have developed and are sharing jurisdiction-wide parcel GIS data. Some states have achieved statewide data, so hopefully sometime soon we'll be able to get more accurate address search engines

[lil-bear]

That is impossible to be sitting on the same ground as Granby tower, am I missing something?

If you look at the picture, 120 W.York is just left to the marker. It's the brown roofed building.

I didn't realize that that was right next to Granby, I though it was a little further away.

Edited December 15, 2006 by lil-bear

[okinawatyphoon]

Not sure if this is the right thread or not....

Danger in delay of Norfolk courts

[urbanlife]

Norfolk needs to pull their thumb out of their butt and do something fast. Who do they think they are the GSA? Where the current School Board building is at the intersection of City Hall and St Paul has plenty of land for a new complex or tower and garage. Plus if they wanted, they could sell off some of the land along St Paul to help lower the costs.

Seriously, it is time for Norfolk to act like the big city it is. It is making many of the right steps, but it still has a long way to go before that can happen.

[vtfan18]

Norfolk needs to pull their thumb out of their butt and do something fast. Who do they think they are the GSA? Where the current School Board building is at the intersection of City Hall and St Paul has plenty of land for a new complex or tower and garage. Plus if they wanted, they could sell off some of the land along St Paul to help lower the costs.

Seriously, it is time for Norfolk to act like the big city it is. It is making many of the right steps, but it still has a long way to go before that can happen.

I agree! I've been saying this for some time now. Although, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that competing against 6 other adjacent cities doesn't help the cause. But they really do need to step up to the plate and make some deals happen. The courts should be the easiest to get resolved considering they own the land and have full say over what can happen. Start by getting rid of Vice Mayor Paul Riddick whose behavior at a recent council meeting was childish, unprofessional, and down right embarrassing.

[gosscj]

Regarding Paul Riddick I totally agree. Unfortunately, he was voted into that position by the council itself, and that after years of speech and behavior inappropriate for anybody, much less an elected representative of the citizens of Norfolk.

Also, I would really like to see most (if not all) of the land currently taken up by City Hall and the courts/jail freed up and the street grid restored to that area. What an ugly cap on the end of an otherwise quite nice Main Street. Is there any plan to drstically redesign that complex or is it just the courts they are moving?

[brikkman]

Norfolk needs to pull their thumb out of their butt and do something fast. Who do they think they are the GSA? Where the current School Board building is at the intersection of City Hall and St Paul has plenty of land for a new complex or tower and garage. Plus if they wanted, they could sell off some of the land along St Paul to help lower the costs.

Seriously, it is time for Norfolk to act like the big city it is. It is making many of the right steps, but it still has a long way to go before that can happen.

I agree, time to take some chances................................

[Glassoul]

Start by getting rid of Vice Mayor Paul Riddick whose behavior at a recent council meeting was childish, unprofessional, and down right embarrassing.

Recent? He's been an a$$hat since the day he arrived on city council. He's a bigot, a racist, and an embarrassment to the city. Of course, I guess every city has to have a town idiot of some notoriety on their local government council...

As far as the development of the school board property, I think that was mentioned somewhere else in an official capacity, that it is an eventuality. But I imagine with all the all capital projects going on, that tearing down and building a new school board building is a couple of years down the line. The city might also be saving that space for a truly impressive building/client, like a company headquarters or something of the like, should the opportunity present itself.

Edited December 20, 2006 by Glassoul

[erdogs]

Recent? He's been an a$$hat since the day he arrived on city council. He's a bigot, a racist, and an embarrassment to the city. Of course, I guess every city has to have a town idiot of some notoriety on their local government council...

I agree, this man hates white people. With the things he has said, he would have been gone a while back if he was white. I don't like bigots what ever color, race, religion or country they come from. This is unacceptable in todays world.

[vdogg]

Do I need to make a Norfolk Civic/Government issues thread?

[vaguynny]

I agree, this man hates white people. With the things he has said, he would have been gone a while back if he was white. I don't like bigots what ever color, race, religion or country they come from. This is unacceptable in todays world.

I think he just has a problem with people. My mother who is black and Paul are in the same line of work and they have bumped heads many times. He tried to bully her but he found out that she is a shark that he should leave alone. I am sure that he has called her many names behind her back. Paul has a very interesting past and family history which I will not bring up, but I think it has a lot do with why his actions are so crazy. I think my mother dose not take him all that serious. Maybe we should do the same.

[okinawatyphoon]

Norfolk rejects courthouse bids as too expensive

City officials have turned down two unsolicited offers from private developers to build a new courts complex in part because they were too costly.

The developers might have been able to build the facility more quickly. Judges and lawyers say time is of the essence because the current buildings are unsafe due to their outdated design and crowded quarters.

T he project is already one of the most expensive efforts ever undertaken in the city, and its estimated cost has risen again, from $84 million less than two years ago to more than $100 million.

perfect.

[vtfan18]

Norfolk rejects courthouse bids as too expensive

perfect.

yep, it also mentioned that the city wants full control over the design. with that being said, we can pretty much expect an un-inspiring building.

[urbanlife]

way to go Norfolk.....well it isn't a 4 billion dollar bid anyway.

[vdogg]

Not everyone happy with downtowns rebirth

Some of the worst traffic jams both on the streets and sidewalks of downtown occur at 2 a.m. Throngs of late-night partiers amble - or stumble - out of clubs. Horns blare. Obscenities fly.

Ten years ago, as they plotted downtown's rebirth, city leaders wanted a vibrant area with offices, stores, homes, restaurants and entertainment spots. They got it.

Downtown no longer slumbers. But above those noisy clubs, a growing legion of downtown residents aren't slumbering, either.

It makes me wonder what they expected when they moved to a downtown area?

[Chesapeake Pirate]

Not everyone happy with downtowns rebirth

It makes me wonder what they expected when they moved to a downtown area?

I think you are right when you use the term "expected", but it is not just as simple as what to "expect when they move to a downtown area". It's not as if this downtown Norfolk situation has a rich history that would make it easy for everyone to have known what to expect.

The residential and the nightlife are both basically new and it is understandable that nightlife wants to be nightlife and that most residents would like to sleep at 2-3am. It is also understanble that residents would be unhappy with loud bositerous drunk people engaging in varieties of inappropriate behavior, nor are they idiots for not excpecting what they now find to be their present circumstances.

I think that everyone needs to work together as per the wise words of Cathy Coleman, President of the Downtown Norfolk Council:

"The late-night economy really adds to the vitality of downtown Norfolk. Our goal is for everyone to succeed, and everyone has a responsibility in that - the nightclub owners, the developers, the residential property owners. Across the board, expectations need to be set and understood."

[brikkman]

it seems like a developer was trying to bank off this deal. That's all it was.............Court and need equals big gain for a developer..

[vdogg]

Developers need to make clear to people before they move in exactly what they're getting into. I'm sure most people moving into an urban evironment are moving there for the atmosphere but it appears at least from this article that not all are aware of exactly what that entails.

[Former Resident of HR]

Developers need to make clear to people before they move in exactly what they're getting into. I'm sure most people moving into an urban evironment are moving there for the atmosphere but it appears at least from this article that not all are aware of exactly what that entails.

I hate to be negative but... COME ON. When someone is house hunting, she/he should do the routine thing of driving around the neighborhood at day and night and if it is downtown, hanging out around the bars at 2AM. We live in a nation full of people who want to blame everyone else when many times it is their own lack of basic common sense that is at the root of the problem. You should know that there are a bunch of bars and clubs on Granby and that when there is a strip of bars and clubs, they are usually loud at 2AM on the weekends. Lord knows, Granby Street is still basically a ghost town every other time of the day so they should be happy that they are not in a real city with people who actually walk down the street and make noise at all hours of the day and night.

[brikkman]

I hate to be negative but... COME ON. When someone is house hunting, she/he should do the routine thing of driving around the neighborhood at day and night and if it is downtown, hanging out around the bars at 2AM. We live in a nation full of people who want to blame everyone else when many times it is their own lack of basic common sense that is at the root of the problem. You should know that there are a bunch of bars and clubs on Granby and that when there is a strip of bars and clubs, they are usually loud at 2AM on the weekends. Lord knows, Granby Street is still basically a ghost town every other time of the day so they should be happy that they are not in a real city with people who actually walk down the street and make noise at all hours of the day and night.

I'm going to have to agree, that's what I did when I brought my home. I always wondered how that worked out: bars on the streets, homes on top of the clubs. I personally couldn't do it, but hell, if I was single and could afford, I would consider it knowing everything I know.