THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 20, 1997 TAG: 9701180022
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 45 lines
More Americans still settle in suburbs than in central cities. But significant numbers of homebuyers and renters opt for the urban scene in pursuit of proximity to workplace and to arts and cultural institutions and other city offerings.
Old Greenwich, Conn.-based developer Arthur Collins caters to the upper-income urban market in the Northeast and the Southeast. He has just sealed a bargain with Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority to place 191 upscale dwelling units - 146 apartments, 45 townhouses - between Duke and Boush streets in downtown Norfolk.
The apartments are projected to rent for $850 or more a month; the townhouses, to sell for $185,000 and up.
Collins expects the emerging $300 million MacArthur Center superregional shopping mall to trigger a wave of downtown development; he intends to catch the wave early. His development will link Freemason Harbor alongside the Elizabeth River waterfront with the Granby District east of Boush Street.
Downtown West, as a 1973 redevelopment plan called the area, was for years the site of abandoned piers, empty warehouses and general decay. In keeping with the 1973 plan, townhouses were built along historic, cobblestoned West Freemason Street in 1977. Altogether, 319 dwelling units constitute what is called Freemason Harbor - 42 townhouses and 277 condominiums. Nearly 500 people live in them.
The $17 million Collins development will boost the population count to nearly 700 and generate $307,000 in real-estate, personal-property, utility and retail-sales taxes. Like the existing units, Collins' housing will make scant demand upon public schools because small children will be scarce.
The future of housing in Norfolk will depend on infill, renewal and upgrades of existing neighborhoods. The Collins development promises to offer a splendid example of how it's done.
Elsewhere in Norfolk, the downtown campus of Tidewater Community College on Granby Street welcomed its first students this month. MacArthur Center's construction is under way. The NRHA land sale to Collins sets the stage for further expansion of downtown's upscale enclave.
The stage is set also for revival of the Granby District, done in by shoppers' and retailers' migration to the suburbs after World War II. Norfolk's half-century-old urban-renewal vision is rapidly being realized.