Waterside District

[EJ_LEWIS]

Wasn't an improved marina always part of the plan for the Waterside District?

[Willy18]

More than likely Waterside Marina, LLC (who manages it now) has some financial issues and can't continue operating. So...they need to find a new company ASAP to manage prior to the end of the year...when their contract officially ends.

I don't see it as a negative on Waterside District's performance...though I would imagine the new smell has worn off some. I've been there several times and I don't think it's as amazing as what was sold to the city.     

[zeppelin14]

The old pedestrian bridge that crosses Waterside Drive (the one by the Sheraton, not directly to Waterside) is finally coming down. With this coming down, even though it has been closed for a while, does anyone think this means more foot traffic across Waterside which will result in less lanes as proposed before?

Waterside Drive pedestrian bridge in Norfolk to be demolished

[vdogg]

They're not tearing down the one going to Waterside. They're tearing down the one crossing from ADP.

[BFG]

I honestly forgot that bridge was even there....and yet it's gonna feel weird not having it there. I drove down Main Street earlier today, and didn't realize many bridges connect buildings over there.

[Cjnfkvb]

IMO, they should just tear down both pedestrian bridges, and elevate waterside drive between the ramps, and brambleton. They can run a small service road undernieth for local traffic, and find a use for the extra property that is freed up.  Most of the traffic on waterside, and st Paul's blvd is just passing through and, when traffic is heavy, it cuts downtown into pieces.

[lammius]

Just about every city that has elevated a highway through downtown is looking for ways to (or already has) knock them down. If you want to prevent waterfront visitors from exploring the rest of downtown, then making them walk under a hulking gloomy underpass is a good way to do it.  No property is freed up under an overpass.  There's structures and (since it's a state road) I'm pretty confident VDOT owns it.  I think elevating these roads would have the opposite of the intended effect, it would not unite downtown, rather it would exacerbate the separation of the pieces.  And with residential units all along Boush Street, you're not going to get past environmental review for bringing travel lanes up a couple of stories to those units' windows.

Best thing to do in order to make downtown more cohesive is not to elevate the roads, but to knit the community together.  Right now Waterside Drive and St. Pauls are arterial highways.  Boush is a little better but could still be improved.  Few streets actually cross St. Pauls.  Union St ends on St. Pauls.  Main St ends, Plume St ends, Mariner St ends, Freemason St ends, etc.  The reasons for this are partly due to urban design fads of the mid-to-late 20th century, and partly a bit more sinister.  On St. Pauls, let's reintroduce the street grid.  Make it look less like Greenbrier Parkway and more like an urban street.  Break up the superblocks so that side streets go across.  Create 4-way intersections with bumpouts and celebrated crosswalks for pedestrians.  On Waterside Drive, signalize the Commercial Pl intersection and put crosswalks there.  Put crosswalks on BOTH sides of Atlantic St and on BOTH sides of Martins Ln.  Do away with that stupid hillside next to WTC and continue the sidewalk to connect with Boush Street.  Every street should have sidewalks on BOTH sides.  At least 8 feet wide. Every 4-way intersection should have 4 crosswalks.  I'd love to see the parking deck by Waterside redeveloped so that there's something useful on the ground floor.  The 1970s-80s "bunker style" architecture kills street life.  Build something on that patch in front of Icon, or dress it up into a nice square park.  Redevelop the Sheraton site (HUGE) into something mixed-use and interesting.  

Then, once we address some issues on Monticello and carve up MacArthur Center to grid Norfolk TF out, we can DARE pedestrians to not roam all over downtown.  

[Norfolk757Kid]

Redevelop Nauticus too! 

[brikkman]

This is going to be crazy.

I like it though..

[BFG]

You sure that’s not an April Fools prank? A water slide going into that river would require many tetanus shots. 

[brikkman]

Def could be

[carolinaboy]

1 hour ago, brikkman said:

This is going to be crazy.

I like it though..

Hook, line and water slide.

[Arctic_Tern]

I can't cast any stones here.  I was about a second away from posting it here when I saw the date. 

[vdogg]

The Harvey Lindsay proposal was better than we thought. Oh, what could have been...

https://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/economic-development/article_1be5ee75-a7e1-5248-91e4-5ce7e3574f78.html

“It includes a new 60,000-square-foot conference center with a ballroom and an exhibit hall large enough to hold boat shows; a

four-star hotel with 300 rooms, each with a view of the harbor; and a

28-story  office tower whose major tenants would be Clark Nexsen and TowneBank, occupying 85 percent of the building.

It would bring new jobs - 1,400 from Clark Nexsen moving its headquarters to downtown Norfolk and 40 to 50 from TowneBank - and $3.5 million a year in new tax revenue.”

 

I’m sad now. Don’t know how we missed this article...

Man, I can’t believe Norfolk turned this down for Cordish. WTH? I mean, it’s nonsensical. What were they thinking?

[Willy18]

Damn....just Damn!!!!!

...but we did get a Guy Fieri's Smokehouse

Gonna make me a mixed drink after that. 

Edited August 9, 2019 by Willy18

[HRVA]

3 hours ago, vdogg said:

The Harvey Lindsay proposal was better than we thought. Oh, what could have been...

https://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/economic-development/article_1be5ee75-a7e1-5248-91e4-5ce7e3574f78.html

“It includes a new 60,000-square-foot conference center with a ballroom and an exhibit hall large enough to hold boat shows; a

four-star hotel with 300 rooms, each with a view of the harbor; and a

28-story  office tower whose major tenants would be Clark Nexsen and TowneBank, occupying 85 percent of the building.

It would bring new jobs - 1,400 from Clark Nexsen moving its headquarters to downtown Norfolk and 40 to 50 from TowneBank - and $3.5 million a year in new tax revenue.”

 

I’m sad now. Don’t know how we missed this article...

Man, I can’t believe Norfolk turned this down for Cordish. WTH? I mean, it’s nonsensical. What were they thinking?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Towne as a major tenant in Gateway. A lot of the Monarch employees have to drive to Harbour View now and that’s a hike unless you live out there. 

[vdogg]

I will not settle for Gateway being anything less than 28 floors now. That was a new tallest they just threw in the trash for no reason. We could've easily got 400 ft out of that.

4 minutes ago, 23320 said:

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Towne as a major tenant in Gateway. A lot of the Monarch employees have to drive to Harbour View now and that’s a hike unless you live out there. 

Towne Bank was only 40-50. We need to pull in 1400 to get a comparable tower. Hope ADP is expanding soon..

[BFG]

I vaguely recall this. I thought the tower was either going to go where The Main is, or they had planned to tear down Selden Arcade. I do remember the conference center site being at Waterside. 

Also, I got my hopes very far up that we were getting another building downtown. Evil haha

[BFG]

Re-reading the article, we could’ve had this and The Main?! The skyline would’ve looked amazing!

[HRVA]

On 8/8/2019 at 9:46 PM, vdogg said:

I will not settle for Gateway being anything less than 28 floors now. That was a new tallest they just threw in the trash for no reason. We could've easily got 400 ft out of that.

Towne Bank was only 40-50. We need to pull in 1400 to get a comparable tower. Hope ADP is expanding soon..

ADP still has around 1,000 people to hire for their current space.