DATE: Monday, March 24, 1997                TAG: 9703240041

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   47 lines

ON THE AGENDA: PAYING FOR NORFOLK BUILDING PROJECTS

The City Council on Tuesday plans to dispense with millions of dollars in bonds to finance construction projects ranging from a new public health center to downtown street improvements.

Three public hearings are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the council's meeting chambers at City Hall.

The hearings include the city's plans to:

Issue $56.1 million in general obligation bonds to finance a variety of capital improvement projects.

Authorize the city's Industrial Development Authority to issue up to $34 million in tax-exempt lease revenue bonds to construct a new public health center on the south side of Brambleton Avenue near Colley Avenue.

Approve use of $2.2 million from the city's capital project fund to build a fifth floor on the new public health center for bio-medical and related research.

Among the big-ticket items that will be at least partially financed from the $56.1 million bond sale are street and infrastructure improvements, estimated at $11.6 million, and part of the city's $100 million commitment to the $300 million MacArthur Center project.

Other projects include the $1.7 million addition to Fairlawn Recreation Center and $3.2 million for infrastructure improvements related to the new Tidewater Community College buildings downtown.

In addition, the bond sale includes $4 million in Qualified Redevelopment Bonds for the 90-acre East Ocean View redevelopment project.

Last month, the council approved a financing plan needed to complete buying and demolishing property in the redevelopment area over the next six years. Under the plan, the city created a special ``tax-increment financing district'' within the 90 acres. Tax revenue generated in the district as a result of increasing property values from redevelopment will go into a fund to help pay off the bond debt.

Tuesday's hearing is the final step before the bonds go to market.

As for the proposed 200,000-square-foot health center, the state will pay most of the $34 million bond debt under a lease-financing arrangement with the city. The state would have an option to buy the building after 20 years.

Norfolk will be responsible for the $2.2 million fifth floor of the bio-medical center. City officials hope to lease that space to a private medical research company, using the rent money to retire the debt. KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CITY COUNCIL

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu