What is Going On with Waterside?
The Downtown Norfolk Council poses to its members and community a question we've been asking ourselves for years: what will save Waterside?
Words Hannah Serrano
Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 12:32 am
It’s been around for just over 25 years, and now Waterside is going through (what we at that age like to call) a quarter-life crisis of identity.
An early rendering of Waterside
I vaguely remember a time when it was an exciting urban shopping destination, long before MacArthur Center existed. Then, when Town Point Park started to bring major music events and festivals just next to it, Waterside received a welcome boost of foot traffic.
The marketplace expanded in 1990, increasing the gross square footage to the current 130,000 square feet. Packed with well-branded nightclubs like Jillian’s, Bar Norfolk and Have a Nice Day Cafe, it became a thriving nightlife destination; that is, until the revitalization of Granby Street. Today the presence of chain restaurants like Outback Steakhouse and Hooters have brought in visitors; but now that MacArthur and Granby have made their indelible marks on the identity of downtown Norfolk, where does that leave Waterside? Unfortunately, it seems it’s the puppy after the twin babies were born.
To inform its decisions as to how Waterside will move forward, the Downtown Norfolk Council (DNC) opened the issue to discussion last week. On Feb. 4, Norfolk City Manager Regina V.K. Williams delivered a presentation at DNC’s member briefing, detailing Waterside’s history and management structure.
Among her points, Williams noted the model of public-private partnership. According to a publicly-released Power Point Presentation, “Enterprise Development Corporation, the City of Norfolk and Norfolk Redevelopment & Housing Authority (NRHA) developed the project.
“In 1999 Waterside Associates was restructured with ‘City Development
Corporation’ (replacing Enterprise Development Corporation), and NRHA became the
sole limited partner on behalf of the City.
“Subsequent to this restructuring, Harvey Lindsay Commercial Real Estate was hired as the management agent and continues in this role today. The City of Norfolk through an agreement with NRHA provides funding to offset any operating shortfall between revenues and expenditures.
Between 1999 to 2002, “the City and NRHA embarked upon a repositioning of the Waterside, with an extensive re-leasing effort which substantially changed the tenant mix in Waterside,” leading to the aforementioned shift from retail and restaurants to restaurants and entertainment.
Waterside, 'The Festival Marketplace,' 1980
Which in turn leads to the crisis of identity that Waterside seems to now be in. For its short-term plans, according to Williams’ presentation, the City has “engaged Urban Design Associates (UDA), partnering with Nottingham Solutions and Live Work Learn Play to determine actions for the existing Waterside timed with reopening of Town Point Park.” It also plans to refocus their image to “attract families” and “remove the lone island feel, make it more inviting.”
As for its long-term plans, the City Council is “open to hearing other site plan ideas, but some or all of the Waterside Festive Marketplace should remain.”
“I think it’s an amazing resource for the City,” said Sheila Giolitti, who owns Mayer Fine Art Gallery on the second floor of Waterside. “But it’s a bit of ‘what comes first, the chicken or the egg.’ They’re not going to get retailers in there without more people coming through. If you go in there during the day, it’s dead.
“But I’m not going anywhere,” Giolitti added. Her gallery, which opened only about a year ago, represents some of the most prominent artists in the area and consistently shows powerful yet commercial art exhibitions. The success of Mayer Fine Art is a hopeful point for the City’s potential renovation project.
Now and in the months ahead, the City is seeking input from the community as to the future of Waterside. As a conduit of sorts, we forward the Council’s query to you. Your thoughts, as local citizens and consumers, piques our interest as much as it affects the decisions of Waterside’s public and private developers. The DNC’s survey includes the following questions:
What would need to change immediately for you to visit the Waterside now–
During the day? At night?
In terms of long term, what would you like to see on the Waterside site?
How should it look and feel–land side? Water side?
How can Waterside, MacArthur Mall, and Granby Street compliment one another?
Tell us what you think. Clearly, we’re not the decision-makers here, but we applaud the City’s efforts to reach out to the community for ideas and input before it makes an investment into the once-luminous, now-in-limbo Waterside.
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"Even though Serranos can be a good deal hotter than the average, their flesh is much thinner so you get a friendly fire rather than a mouthful of afterburn." — Alton Brown
Other posts by Hannah Serrano.
Other posts by Hannah Serrano.
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The problem with Hampton Roads, what makes it forgettable in the national context, is that when you think of marketing this area, people want to change it in a real artificial sort of way to make it “better” than what it is rather than embracing what it is that makes our area unique. For example, you think of San Francisco, you think of sour dough, the golden gate bridge, etc. You think of Philadelphia, you think of cheese steak, Rocky, etc.
This is essentially what’s kind of wrong with waterside. There’s no real good reason to go there anymore, and there’s nothing that’s particularly Hampton Roads about it other than the fact that it’s on the water. While I don’t necessarily know what that is, we need to figure out what this area is about, embrace it, and do something organic there, meaning don’t bring in a bunch of otherwise meaningless chains and nick-nack shops.
but brendan, what is this area about?
to me, and this is just in my humble personal opinion, hampton roads is about to slap a dick to yr mouth.
oh shit.
I think Waterside took a wrong turn when they looked to chain restaurants and “big” bars to save them. Granby St. and Colley Ave. are successful because of their independent stores, smaller, sexier, more personal bars and restaurants and local feel. Hampton Roads residents are proud of their local status and most prefer to shop, support, dine and play with other locals. While we enjoy the boost tourism gives our economy I think most of agree that we are sick of the cities kissing the tourists’ ass. Why not turn Waterside into a celebration of local arts and culture? Give local business owners a break for opening a second shop or restaurant there, display local art and history. Think about it, when you travel to a new city do you look for Hooters and Outback first? Or do you check out the local hang outs and try to get a feel for what the city is about? Tourists would still enjoy Waterside if it had local flair and it would surive the “lean winter” months because locals would enjoy it to. I think its a huge mistake the seven cities all make when they focus on attacting people here for a week or two of vacation and they leave out those of us who spend every day and almost every dollar in our hometown.
I agree with you Tiffany. It’s all about the independents but with that being said I don’t see the people of Hampton Roads LOYAL to the independents.
I’m not sure why there can’t be a MIX. I’m not much for big chains; however, if a lot of other folks like ‘em and they boost the economy — okay — let’s have a few; but can’t we also have that local flavor and the small, quirky, artsy shops too? Isn’t that what REAL cities do? Play to both crowds? Who visits a city so they can go to a chain restaurant? I seek out the local personality. The dilemma is: we all know those people who try to UNNATURALLY create personality. Nobody wants to be around them.
You know, there are a lot of theories about what to do with once burgeoning areas like Waterside. There seemed to be a lot of mislead development projects across the country during the timeframe of Waterside’s demise. The attraction of big named chains meant the loss of individuality which is, in essence, what creates ‘charm’.
As to the idea that a MIX can happen… Eureka! The best way to increase traffic to something like upstart Mom& Pop or a relocated local favorite- outside of amazing viral word of mouth – uthis to be located along the path to something that is getting a lot of traffic from your potential customers. It works best when big chains end up adapting beyond the typical ‘Big Box’ theme to fit a specific local with individual characteristics(i.e urban retail/ new urbanism/strict design criteria guidelines) where it caters naturally to locally owned businesses. The importance is to give people a reason to be in a place at any given time. Aggregated is usually the most representative of local needs and characteristics.
This is some great conversation. Sorry I have been absent for the past week or so. Kayla’s birthday party is next weekend and things have been crazy, I couldn’t pass up chiming in.
Truth is, Waterside started dying the second Granby Street began its renaissance… It’s time City Council take it off life-support, and enable that riverfront real estate to serve a better purpose.
Sure, I’ll miss the Mongolian Bar-be-que stand and maybe get a little tender over childhood memories of the “Penny-Cruncher Machine”, but its for the best. Not only is the site an eyesore and serving as a horrible initial representation to all the hotel guests in such close proximity as to what Norfolk’s about, but its costing residents almost a million dollars a year to keep the lights on.
All this for “Bloomin’ Onions” and a look-see at knee-high sock wearing cute girls in skimpy orange shorts?
It’s a dead horse… and the mermaids are growing tired of the stench.