Will X mark the spot for Beach's Dome site?

VIRGINIA BEACH

The fate of the old Dome site may depend on how much redevelopment the city wants to bite off at one time.

If city leaders want to transform the Dome pad into an entertainment complex, they might be eager to partner with a group promoting VB X Park, an extreme sports center wrapped by shopping and restaurants.

If leaders want the same firm to redevelop all along 19th Street, including a headquarters hotel for the Convention Center, then they might be tempted by a trio of developers featuring Armada Hoffler.

So, what does the city want?

Good question.

“We’ve got a tough choice to make,” said Steve Herbert, the city’s chief development officer. “What’s the value of this project beyond the boundaries of the vacant Dome site?”

As city leaders prepare to interview three interested developers this week to work on the Dome site, one group is making the most noise.

Wave House Extreme Times LLC would build VB X Park, a complex of some two city blocks that would feature a 75,000-square-foot wave pool with a retractable roof, a multiplex, an indoor wind tunnel, a rock climbing wall and a live theater venue.

Craig Dean, the group’s managing member, said there is also 150,000 square feet of space set aside for future development.

“We want to build what the city sees,” Dean said. “They’re the ones with the land.”

VB X Park has a Web site with a mock newscast that makes it sound like the proposal has already been approved by the City Council. Only at the end of the video clip does a woman wake up from a nap and say, “What a dream.”

“I know what the Beach needs,” Dean said. “And if it’s anything but entertainment … it falls short. People need something to do.”

The plan has gotten the attention of the Virginia Beach Hotel-Motel Association, which stated in a recent letter that “these are things we currently do not have in the resort.”

Linwood Branch, association president, said his group has not endorsed Dean’s plan, but finds it intriguing because it has all-weather activities.

“You need a year-round type of experience,” Branch said. “That’s what we’re hoping the decision makers realize.”

Dean is already a familiar developer in Norfolk, where he is a partner in several Granby Street projects. Those buildings, including Granby Theater and the historic Bankers Trust Building, have come under fire in the past year for structural and public safety issues

Dean said he is proud of his work in Norfolk and he has lined up at least $100 million to put into the Dome site, if his group is selected.

He also said that focusing on the Dome site first – and not the entire 19th Street corridor – will jump-start Oceanfront revitalization.

“Everything else will follow,” said Jack Strickland, one of Dean’s partners.

Lou Haddad, president of Armada Hoffler, sees it differently.

To redevelop the Dome site, Armada Hoffler teamed with local development firm Bruce Smith Enterprise and The Cordish Co. of Baltimore. Cordish redeveloped part of that city’s Inner Harbor and built mixed-use districts in Louisville, Ky. and Kansas City, Mo.

Haddad’s triumvirate hasn’t submitted a plan yet, preferring to instead wait to talk to city leaders. His vision for the Dome site is a mixed- use district of shopping, eating and music venues – similar to Armada Hoffler’s work at Town Center.

But Armada Hoffler and its investors may not stop at the Dome site. Haddad said his team is working to submit a plan to build a headquarters hotel for the convention center. The city has given developers until April to submit plans .

“The kind of investment that we’re talking about, you can’t just say, 'Here’s a nice plan, let’s do this,’” Haddad said. “We’re talking in the hundreds of millions of dollars. They really can’t select our approach without being willing to look at the whole corridor and what it needs to make us into a first-class destination.”

Councilman John Uhrin said the third firm to be interviewed, Leisure and Recreation Concepts Inc. of Dallas, has been quiet, but is still “a major player.” The company’s president has said he would build a district of restaurants, shopping and, possibly, a “moving theater.”

“If I were making a proposal to come in, I may not give away my hand either,” Vice Mayor Louis Jones said.

Jones said the council is months away from any decisions. None of the three developers have hinted at how much public funding they would ask for, and city leaders haven’t said how much they’d spend.

And even if the Virginia Beach Development Authority chooses one of the developers to work with exclusively for six months on a Dome site plan, the council – which has the final say – won’t be committed to any project or company.

“To say somebody’s in the front-running really would not be fair and not logical at this point,” Jones said. “We’ve got to see what the deals are. That’s the way this goes.”

Richard Quinn, (757) 222-5119, richard.quinn@pilotonline.com