Can Norfolk's Waterside become a community center?

NORFOLK

Will couples dancing the two-step replace girls dancing on bars? The city reached out Thursday to the region's creative community to help revive aging Waterside Festival Marketplace, outlining a plan that calls for local theater, music, dancing and other community events to fill vacant spaces in the riverfront entertainment complex.

Arts and business leaders embraced the idea. Many said local energy and charm have long been missing from Waterside.

Since it opened in 1983, the complex has shifted from a community marketplace to a nightclub and dining scene, with national chain restaurants occupying most of the space.

"The whole idea of getting the community together and invested in it," developer Bobby Wright said. "This is coming full circle.

"This is absolutely what the city needs."

Festevents Director Karen Scherberger described how the now-empty BlackFinn restaurant could become a venue for Shakespeare, how the old food court could be made into a public dance area, and how other parts of the building could host traveling museum exhibits, karate classes and craft fairs.

At a meeting to unveil the plan Thursday, Scherberger spoke to representatives of everything from the Tidewater Friends of Folk Music to the 40th Street Stage to the Culinary Institute of Virginia.

"Our job is to work with some existing spaces and redefine them," she told them. "This is the first time we've had this kind of flexibility and opportunity."

Starting in July, Festevents hopes to help local groups host events inside Waterside at least every weekend and likely one or two weekdays, she said.

"If we can make it happen every day, that would be great."

Waterside has been criticized as being too dingy and dark, as blocking views of the Elizabeth River and as having too few family-friendly attractions.

Over the past 18 months, several Waterside vendors and restaurants have closed, leaving the venue quiet, especially during the day. The food court is nearly vacant; Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream recently closed its booth. On the first floor, Kings Chinese Restaurant and BlackFinn have closed.

There have also been security concerns, which were heightened after a man left the entertainment complex on a night in March and was shot in the parking garage across the street.

The city's Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which owns the Waterside, will in the next month take out walls and remove many of the vacant food court kiosks, executive director Shurl Montgomery said.

Crews will install new doors leading from Waterside Drive through the center of the building out to the river, and will add windows with views of the water.

Heavy canopies and overhangs will make way for patio tables with umbrellas to provide more outdoor seating, he said.

"We want to make it a whole new atmosphere," he said. "You'll see a lot of the interior changing."

Scherberger said she hopes local theater set designers and artists will provide new energy and color for the space, and change perceptions about the type of entertainment Waterside provides.

When Town Point Park re-opens on July 3 after its $11.5 million renovation, she wants Waterside to be ready as well.

"It's going to be very creative," she said.

Meghan Hoyer, (757) 446-2293, meghan.hoyer@pilotonline.com