The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
Always make sure to address one another by name, Michelle Parker instructed the rapt group of young women dressed in black.
Parker, who is a manager, said chaos bubbles around a restaurant's front desk, and calling fellow hostesses by name can cut down on confusion.
Nearby, another set of managers schooled waiters on their appearance: Ponytails must be neatly tied. Earrings should be nickel-size or smaller. Men must be clean-shaven.
In the final days before the opening of Town Center's newest restaurant, the Yard House, the staff honed the smallest details.
"Training is intense, and we let them know it," said Kimberly Love, the restaurant's general manager.
Its opening marks a big month for Town Center, an urban-style residential and business community built by developer Armada Hoffler with help from the city's taxpayers.
Yard House, which is based in California and is known for its large beer selection, will open Sunday. Later in November, Havana Nights Jazz & Cigar Club is scheduled to open around the corner, on the opposite side of the Westin Hotel building.
"This place is really just taking off," said Mark Waw-ner, a project manager with the city's development authority.
The openings solidify Town Center's reputation as a dining and nightlife destination. Yet, as a shopping destination, Town Center still lags.
"People don't associate Town Center with the retail as much as the restaurants or the comedy club," said Beverley Mason, owner of B. Original, a vintage boutique there. Mason said she and her staff have struggled to build a customer base and have aggressively marketed through Facebook and email.
"It's more of an entertainment area, and the retail adds to the entertainment," she said.
Mason said she hopes the new restaurants will draw more people to Town Center, and eventually to her store.
A survey last year by the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau showed almost half of the city's tourists visited Town Center. It was the second-most popular activity after hanging out at the beach.
That traffic, along with the location's proximity to the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts across the street, helped lure the Yard House to the area, said Gerald Divaris of Divaris Real Estate Inc., who helped plan and develop Town Center. This is the first mid-Atlantic location for the restaurant.
"They saw the activity and the appeal of it," he said.
And despite the down economy, restaurant spending in Town Center and Virginia Beach has remained strong, Divaris said.
Last fiscal year, the city collected $50.6 million in restaurant meal taxes. That's an 8 percent increase from 2007, which was before the recession, according to the Beach's Finance Department.
Town Center began in 1999 as a public-private partnership of the city and Armada Hoffler, and was envisioned as a mix of offices, shops, condominiums and restaurants. The city has invested nearly $84 million into the first three phases of the project, mostly in garages and infrastructure improvements. The increase in assessed value and real estate taxes in and around Town Center goes toward paying back the city's investment in the project.
The residential aspect of Town Center has generally performed well, Wawner said, though Armada Hoffler did auction off 18 of 24 unsold condominium units in the Westin last weekend in sales amounting to $7.5 million. The Westin has 120 condos.
Apartments at Town Center have done much better. According to Real Data, a Charlotte, N.C.-based apartment market research firm, the vacancy rate at the apartment building known as The Cosmopolitan is 2.9 percent.
"They're doing exceptionally well," said Engle Addington, a research analyst with Real Data.
Divaris and Wawner acknowledge that retail has struggled.
"It's not anywhere as good as we would like," Wawner said.
The project needs more national stores to create the type of critical mass that malls enjoy, he said.
The fourth phase of Town Center, which was supposed to jolt the retail sector with a hotel, boutiques, apartments and an office tower, has stalled because of the economy.
Still, Dana Rice, the owner of Havana Nights, said he expects Town Center to be the right place for his business.
The mix of higher-end restaurants, such as Ruth's Chris Steak House, should bring in clients who are willing to spend several hundred dollars to join a private cigar club and pay the food and drink minimum to listen to jazz in an intimate lounge.
"This location will be good forever," Rice said.
Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com
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Well, well, well.
Put me in the category of "Not Surprised at All."
you know what store would do well there...
a 7-11. Town Center will not be a real downtown, that is a true walkable area, until they have some type of grocery within walking distance. It seems like a shopping mall would be better suited for high end retail. Lynnhaven, MacArthur, and Landstown Common have that taken care of.
Town Center Bars and Restaurants
Maybe Virginia Beach can obtain some money back from the patrons who visit these establishments by DUI's. Any person living South of 264 has to drive to Town Center as there is no way to walk or bicycle. Try walking across Independence Blvd at 264, you are taking your life into your hands. You call this planning. What is the remedy, it seems no one can come up with a solution.
As you dine, remember you had to drive there, so no more than 1 or 2 cocktails. Limit that spending!!!
See this video of a bike ride to Town Center.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knlPLMGM1os
Where are the good paying jobs?
$84 mil of our tax $$ used to fund fancy eatin and drinkin establishments. While everyone was being "entertained" our country has gone to you know what in a handbasket. Spore/Sessoms and their cronies have put us in a bad positon with their excessive borrowing and spending. Think about these boondogles:
1) Days Inn at Bonney Rd
2) TPC golf
3) Conv Center
I could list many more but you get the picture. Latest update is that next year's budget will have a deficit in the neighborhood of $100 million and they had an "emergency" meeting yesterday regarding the HQ hotel for the conv. ctr.
Meanwhile we still have the lowest wages in the state of VA.
At least we now have a "USED" car dealer at the entrance of Town Center.
No thanks!
So Robert Dean and the rest of the discredited officers of the moribund VBTA oppose town center, the 31st Street Hilton project in which another park was provided for entertainment and congregation, parking, the V.B. Convention Center, saving Sandbridge, and just about every another initiative that has contributed to this thriving City. So what would the Beach be if the VBTA were in charge? We know from their manifesto that the following would be closed: libraries, the convention center, recreation centers, parks, economic development, regional partnerships, human services, Sandler Center, museums, blue collar city and school workers replaced with contractors, schools closed. In other words, Princess Anne County in 1940. No thanks
Retail at Town Center
Just for the record, we, at Jones Art Gallery, are having our best year ever, at Town Center, of our fifty years in the art business. We are thriving. As a business owner, you must build your reputation along with your client base. You are responsible for your successes as well as for your failures. You have to have a great product and then you must bring people in to your store to experience the product. The customer's experience in your store will either be a positive or a negative experience. It is up to the owners and staff to make sure the customers have a positive experience so they will return repeatedly. In closing, if you are going to comment on businesses other than your own, be sure you know what you are talking about.
Louis Jones t
Resolution approving Phase
Resolution approving Phase IV of the Town Center Project
$12 million public money entailed, Armada/Hoffler guarantees payback over a 20
year period, and the Authority noted this is important information for the public to know. Lou
Haddad noted his company was able to absorb this cost for Phase I, II, and III. However, the
current market will not allow this component to be financed, as was done with Phase I, II, and
III. Additionally, the escalation of construction costs is greater than the increase in rental rates.
When stacked vertically construction costs become more expensive. Sound to be the don't want to invest right now, But city council says,
Vice Mayor Louis Jones noted
Vice Mayor Louis Jones noted payment of the public money is at least three years out.
Councilmember Rosemary Wilson noted the construction of Phase IV will create jobs and avoid gridlock by having product available once the economy improves.
City Council approved this action at its January 13, 2009 meeting.
Still waiting, Rosemary... Where is this money ???
Read and Learn...
(23 March 2010))
A new report by the Public Service International Research Unit cautions the European Commission against enthusiastically endorsing public-private partnerships, contending that PPPs, as they are known, do not supplement public spending – they absorb it. The European Commission outlines high hopes for developing public-private partnerships in its EU 2020 strategy.
Finally, the claim that "PPPs offer capacity to leverage private funds....these benefits are of
particular importance in the present economic conditions" is contradicted by the rest of the paper
itself, which attempts the opposite – i.e. it tries to find ways for the public sector to raise funds for
PPPs, precisely because the private sector is now unable to ra
cont
y because the private sector is now unable to raise funds for PPPs at rates even close
to the public sector. As the paper says in discussing TEnT projects: "PPPs....often face difficulties in
attracting competitively priced private financing."
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