THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412140427
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: IN THE CITIES
SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
``In Norfolk, Visitors Can Be Crew for a Day'' - The New York Times, July 10.
``Ship Shape: All Hands On Deck'' - The Washington Post, July 8.
``Nauticus part of new wave in museums'' - USA Today, May 29.
Those were some of the national press headlines earlier this year for the Nauticus project on Norfolk's waterfront.
``Nauticus Tallies Big Losses So Far,'' ``City May Bolster Nauticus'' - those are recent local press headlines.
Norfolk is considering backing another $5 million in loans for Nauticus and using all the project's tax revenues to help pay off its existing debts. That has some City Council members shifting uncomfortably in their seats, and it's likely to produce a heated Dec. 20th public hearing.
Basically, not enough people have forked over $10 for tickets to Nauticus this year, and the project has cost a little more than planned. That has raised fears of a taxpayer bail-out.
So how do the residents and leaders of a city decide whether their tourist attractions, or other projects, are successful?
One way is to examine what is expected of the project, and to be realistic about it.
Consider the Virginia Marine Science Museum in Virginia Beach, which has begun an expansion that would bring it closer in size to Nauticus.
The city of Virginia Beach built the Marine Science Museum, and hasn't required the project to pay that back. Essentially, the museum began as a fairly simple, low-tech series of aquariums, featuring the life of the local rivers and bays.
Every year, it costs the city a little less than $500,000 to pay off the debt, plus another $500,000 or so for landscaping, utilities, maintenance, and other costs. The annual total comes to a little more than $1 million, year in, year out.
Yet there has been no uproar over what the museum costs the city, no public magnifying-glass examination of the attendance.
Why, then, does Nauticus come under such scrutiny?
The difference appears to lie in expectations.
Nauticus has been expected to be an entertaining, nationally-known tourist draw and a scientifically valid, cutting-edge educational facility. It was required to pay for all of its building costs and its day-to-day operating costs. And it would generate tax income for the city.
In fact, Nauticus officials and the city promised they would be able to deliver on all those.
You can group all the expectations in three categories:
Attendance and finances - Briefly, Nauticus needs to draw 750,000 visitors a year to pay its debts.
Clearly, Nauticus did not succeed at that in its first year. By year's end, visitation is expected to reach 475,000. It only paid its construction debts because Nauticus backers had already privately raised $6 million for exactly that purpose.
``We created an overly ambitious financial plan for Nauticus,'' said Darlene Burcham, an assistant city manager in Norfolk. ``If you were to call the Marine Science Museum, or the Virginia Air and Space Museum, neither of those are expected to make all these expenses.''
But next year or the year after, Nauticus will have to make those construction debt payments, along with everything else - salaries, maintenance, paint, the electric bill, etc. - out of its income from tickets, food sales, and gifts.
Also, while it produced nearly $600,000 in taxes for the city, those may now be used to offset the debt.
The city maintains its risk with Nauticus is now lower because the project can draw on those taxes, and Nauticus has been able to re-arrange some of its debt.
Effect on downtown - Nauticus needs to boost the fortunes of other projects and businesses, such as Waterside, the Waterside Marriott, perhaps the Chrysler Museum.
City officials and businesses say Nauticus has had some success on that count. Business has increased at Waterside and the Marriott Hotel, although it's hard to tie it directly to the tourist attraction. Smaller businesses, such as the Toysmith, report picking up sales from people going to and from Nauticus.
Nauticus has generated tax dollars, but it has not affected property values one way or the other. City assessor Wayne Trout said Nauticus has not yet become the kind of asset that boosts land or building values around it.
In one case, the nearby Harbour Place condominiums, residents of ground-floor condos argued that the value of their units had been damaged because Nauticus blocked their view. The city rejected that claim.
The city's image - By selling itself nationally, Nauticus should sell Norfolk and Hampton Roads.
In some ways, that's the hardest to gauge, but if one way is media coverage, Nauticus delivered the goods. In addition to spots on the ``Today Show'' and ``Good Morning America,'' Nauticus prompted hundreds of news stories in newspapers and magazines.
An independent media service counted 326 print articles on Nauticus, plus television air time worth $440,000. The Washington Post featured Nauticus on the cover of its ``Weekend'' section. Other stories appeared in newspapers in Toronto, St. Petersburg, Miami, Charlotte, Raleigh, St. Louis and Chicago.
Best of all for Hampton Roads, many of those stories talked as much about the region as Norfolk and Nauticus itself. Potential tourists became aware of what the region offers.
``We work with travel writers and editors all the time,'' said Susan Bak, acting executive director of the Norfolk Convention and Visitors Bureau. ``Nauticus gave us something new to call attention to. It was genuine national news.'' by CNB