THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 2, 1995 TAG: 9505310119
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Since shopping is a game anyway, Pat Smith has dreamed up a retail center with a game board theme.
Capitalizing on public fascination with games, the Portsmouth nurse has drawn out a plan for a center configured on a pattern of the game board generations know as ``Monopoly.'' She's even called the company that owns the rights to the name.
Using the old Churchland High School site, Smith has ``Go'' on High Street. The logo for the center would be (what else?) sculptured mega-dice dangling out front.
Inside the shops and entertainment spots would have names appropriate to their uses.
``Tennessee Avenue'' would be a porched building for country line dancing and other current dances. Smith, a mother of adult children, said people now have to go to Virginia Beach or Newport News for this sort of entertainment.
``Reading Railroad'' would look like a train car and house a children's bookstore. ``Virginia Avenue'' would sell Virginia products such as hams, peanuts and wine and maybe box lunches including a selection of goodies.
``Boardwalk'' would be a woodcraft shop selling hand-crafted items made of wood. ``New York Avenue'' would house a theater, both live and cinematic. Park Place would be an outdoor roller skating rink in a shaded, fan-cooled pavilion surrounded by eating areas.
Mediterranean Avenue would be a food center with first-class restaurants selling Italian, French, Spanish and Greek cuisine. ``We don't have many restaurants specializing in this kind of food,'' Smith said.
``Go to Jail'' would be an exotic bird cage - ``the world's largest maybe,'' Smith said. An area she called ``Take a Chance'' would feature a weekly antique and collectibles auction.
``Maybe the city could start its own lottery and sell tickets here,'' Smith said. ``Might be a good way to raise money.''
``Oriental Avenue'' would be a Japanese tearoom and garden with a reception area that could be rented for weddings and catered parties. ``Marvin Gardens'' would be a an open space featuring plants, stone sculpture, whimsical birdhouses, a butterfly garden and a fountain with statuary of children playing in the spray.
Parking in this dream world would, of course, be out of sight on the backside of the center. The restaurants would be located in the rear to accommodate people who came to eat.
Smith said that on the Churchland site, she would put the gardens and the tearoom next to the Woodbine residential area.
``I think two big stores on that important site would be an awful mistake,'' Smith said. She, incidentally, lives at Sterling Point and works at Portsmouth General Hospital.
Small shops and entertainment would attract visitors and provide a place for local people too, Smith said. The center she envisions would be ``romantic and surprising.''
It may be too late to turn the Churchland High site into a ``Monopoly'' game. And, of course, Smith has no numbers to argue for the feasibility of such a center. But the notion is not so far-fetched as it might seem on first hearing.
Remember what people said when they first heard about Disneyland?
A ``Monopoly'' center certainly would be attractive to people tired of monster shopping malls and discount stores because it would have outdoor spaces and some aesthetic values.
Smith's idea parallels a national trend to creating village-like centers for those tired of driving miles to regional shopping areas and then walking miles through parking lots to gaudy malls or crowded discount stores.
Would ``Monopoly'' work? I don't know. It would require a huge investment on a whim to find out. But, as Smith envisions it, in the event of bankruptcy, ``Monopoly'' could be turned easily to a more typical shopping center.
As Smith talked with great animation about ``Monopoly,'' I kept thinking about all the vacant land off London Boulevard around Effingham Corridor. A multifaceted center (maybe even incorporating some of the Galaxy ideas) based on a ``Monopoly'' game certainly would get the attention of all the thousands of people traveling daily in and out of the city to go to the Naval Hospital and Shipyard.
Some variation of the idea somewhere between Downtown and Midtown could sound just interesting enough to attract some of those passers-by to stop and spend some of their money and time in Portsmouth. by CNB