THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608180061
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 92 lines
Long-vacant storefronts along Granby Street are being filled with new restaurants, creating a business base that is helping revive the shopping street.
Many of the eateries have been lured by the promise of thousands of students walking the streets when the new branch of Tidewater Community College opens in January.
In the 400 block of Granby St., pizza parlor Del Vecchios opened last week. Its neighbors - Ty's Pizza, Copacetie Cafe and Tropical Delights - all opened in the past eight months. Also in the same row is The Monastery, a longtime resident of Granby Street.
The restaurant, specializing in Eastern European cuisine, is expanding into a neighboring storefront, and almost doubling its medieval-looking brick facade with arched windows.
In all, more than 20 restaurants have opened downtown in the past 18 months, according to city planning offices. All told, that's at least 70 restaurants downtown, judging by liquor licenses, a figure that includes 19 establishments in Waterside.
The new restaurants could be the start of what city officials hope is a more complete revival of the city's historic shopping street, a revival that has been the goal of much of the city's downtown development.
Robert Clark, owner of Del Vecchios, said there is a simple reason he chose to gamble on selling pizza slices on Granby Street.
``TCC,'' Clark said, opening the door of the furnace-like pizza ovens. ``When I heard TCC was coming down here, I said, `This street needs a good pizza place.' ''
A few doors down, Bettie Dexter, co-owner of Copacetie Cafe, said her business has suffered because the opening of the college has been rescheduled from September to January.
``Right now, we're biding our time,'' Dexter said. ``We're mostly making a living through deliveries to the courthouse'' and to nearby offices.
Not all new restaurants are aiming at students. Several of the places cater to the office workers and young professionals who fill buildings on Main Street. Many also have helped add something downtown Norfolk has lacked in recent years: a night life.
In the 200 block, Way Off Broadway has opened a coffeehouse and dinner theater that hosts live plays for an audience seated at small cafe tables.
Open Wide, a restaurant in the 100 block, which has labeled itself Granby Row, is often filled with people getting off from work. The same goes for Mo & O'Malley's Irish Pub, right across the street.
``We think this revitalization of Granby Street started in this block, and will probably creep on up,'' said Jim Manning, owner of Mo & O'Malley's.
Reviving Granby Street has been a goal of the city for several decades. A city's downtown still symbolizes the city as a whole, say Norfolk officials, and a vital urban shopping street would improve the city's image nationally and be an asset for citizens to enjoy.
Half-vacant, Granby Street drags the city down both in image and in lost tax revenues. Much of downtown development is aimed at bringing the street back - from the planned MacArthur Center mall to the renovation of the old Rice's department store into the Granby Municipal Building.
Whether the MacArthur mall will create new foot traffic on Granby Street has been an issue of debate.
John Simon, project manager for The Taubman Co., the mall developer, predicts a giant wave of new development will accompany the mall, similar to the scores of businesses that have opened around Taubman's mall in the Cherry Creek neighborhood of Denver.
To prepare, Simon says the city should start preparing design guidelines for new businesses and making infrastructure improvements that will connect Granby Street to MacArthur Center.
By making the sidewalks around the mall resemble those on Granby, controlling signs and other aspects, the city can stimulate downtown shoppers to walk from the mall to Granby Street without thinking about it so much.
Several restaurateurs have criticized the city for having a slow and overly elaborate permit process for everything from outdoor signs to the special permits the city requires for state liquor licenses. The delays can make doing business unpredictable and expensive, they said.
Some council members warn that too many establishments serving alcohol would turn Granby Street into a modern version of East Main Street, fabled for its bars and honky-tonks before 1960. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Del Vecchios opened last week in the 400 block of Granby, aiming for
students at Tidewater Community College. Other new eateries aim for
office workers and young professionals.
Photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Robert Clark saw opportunity with Del Vecchios: ``When I heard TCC
was coming down here, I said, `This street needs a good pizza
place.' ''
KEYWORDS: URBAN RENEWAL DOWNTOWN NORFOLK
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