Suffolk, TCC turn to pros as they weigh use of land

SUFFOLK

The city and Tidewater Community College know they are sitting on a gold mine - nearly 450 acres of prime waterfront property at the foot of the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel. They're about to get some professional advice on what to do with it.

A panel of experts from the Urban Land Institute will conduct a weeklong study this month and offer recommendations for developing the site. The owners say they are hoping the study will help bring top dollar and a coordinated development plan that will benefit the entire region.

It is one of the last significant waterfront parcels in Hampton Roads, and real-estate developers have been lusting after it for years.

"This is just an incredibly beautiful piece of property, and we want to do it right," said TCC President Deborah DiCroce. "I don't want someone to look back 20 years from now and say, 'My gosh! What were they thinking?' "

TCC's Real Estate Foundation owns most of the property, 389 acres, including all of its shoreline straddling

I-664. The land was donated to the state by the Beazley Foundation in 1968 for a new TCC campus. The city's Economic Development Authority owns 56 adjoining acres to the south, which it bought from the college in 2006 for $5.6 million.

"We wanted it to be an economic engine and a source of job creation," said Suffolk Economic Development Director Kevin Hughes. "If it was to become an office park or a mixed-development site, we weren't exactly sure, but we wanted to have some control over the site and encourage development out there."

After TCC opened its new Portsmouth campus in 2009, it began talking with Suffolk officials about developing the property together. They decided to ask the nonprofit institute for advice and are splitting the $120,000 cost of the study.

The institute will assemble a panel of developers, bankers, urban planners and other experts from around the country on Feb. 20 to meet with city and college leaders and other stakeholders and interested parties.

The panel will make a preliminary report Feb. 25 and produce a more detailed plan 60 days later. The Washington-based institute has performed similar studies in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake.

Both the city and TCC say they have no preconceptions about what the plan should include.

"It's a clean slate, as far as I'm concerned," DiCroce said. "I'm really looking forward to what the ULI comes up with."

City Councilman Robert C. Barclay, who represents the Sleepy Hole Borough where the property is located, said he wants to make sure that "whatever goes in includes some form of public usage," such as a park or public seawall, like the one in downtown Portsmouth.

"People are accustomed to going out there and enjoying the waterfront," Barclay said. "I ride my bicycle out there sometimes and see people fishing or just sitting and enjoying the water. Public access to at least some of it needs to be preserved."

Bob Williams, who developed Suffolk's Harbour View area, says while everyone agrees the property is prime, gauging its present value is problematic.

"A couple of years ago, I would have said $300,000 an acre would have been a reasonable amount," Williams said. That would have made the entire property worth $135 million. "In this economy, it's almost like a dart board. It's hard to tell what the market will bear."

The two parcels were recently assessed at just over $65 million.

Jeff Sheler, (757) 222-5563, jeff.sheler@pilotonline.com