Norfolk's Town Point Park set for makeover, and you can help

NORFOLK

For $100, your name will be enshrined in a brick.

For $5,000, they'll name a tree for you.

And for a cool half million bucks, they’ll name the new amphitheater in your behalf.

All of it is an effort, announced Wednesday, to raise $1 million for the $11.5 million makeover of Town Point Park.

Mayor Paul Fraim said ordinary people are being asked to contribute, rather than just corporations, “because we want people to feel connected to Town Point Park, to feel ownership. We’ll get a lot of people buying $100 bricks, and those folks will be the guardians of the park in the future.”

The park is closing on Oct. 20, the day after the Virginia Wine festival, and will reopen next July 3 for Harborbest. Fraim said the annual downtown celebration will feature three nights of fireworks.

The park is home to about 95 events attracting nearly a half million visitors annually. All of those visitors have taken their toll on the 25-year-0ld park, which has never been renovated.

The renovation will include a new amphitheater near the Otter Berth pier, and new restrooms, sidewalks, pathways, fountains and lighting. The city is contributing $8.5 million and the Virginia Port Authority $2 million. Karen Scherberger, executive director of Festevents, the private group that puts on most events at Town Point Park, said she anticipates no problems in her group’s effort to raise an additional $1 million privately.

Fraim called the park arguably “the most important piece of property in the city. “Town Point Park is the green space for the 30,000 folks who work in downtown and the 5,000 or so who live here and the tens of thousands of visitors,” Fraim said. “This is where we came together to collectively to mourn” the bombing of the USS Cole and 9/11. “This is where we gather as a city.”