DATE: Saturday, June 7, 1997                TAG: 9706060537

SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY      PAGE: 09   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARY ELLEN MILES, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY 

                                            LENGTH:  108 lines

BLIGHTED AREA NOW SPARKLES

A beautifully landscaped apartment complex, rich in amenities and nestled into the well established neighborhood of Suburban Park in Norfolk, was once the only blight in the area, according to the man who rehabed it after more than 30 years of its oft-neglected existence.

The mostly brick four-plex apartments, once known as Daniel Gardens, now called ``Archer's Green,'' sit southeast of Wards Corner near Granby Street and Suburban Parkway, beyond the Norfolk Collegiate School tennis courts.

Some units are on Suburban Parkway; others are on four surrounding streets.

The developer of Archer's Green, Richard Waitzer, says, ``I bought Beirut, Lebanon,'' referring to the condition of the neighborhood when he acquired it more than five years ago. Waitzer is president of Richard Waitzer Properties, a family-owned company in Virginia Beach.

``It looked bombed out - windows missing, doors missing, appliances missing, ripped out plumbing - as bad a slum as you'd want to see,'' he says. There were 17 leases there at the time. And homeless people slept there.

``There were 43 structurally sound but cosmetically horrible two bedroom four-plexes,'' he says. ``They'd been neglected and neglected and neglected. But it was a super location. This was a textbook rehabilitation. We spent far more on rehab than on paying for it - it was a foreclosure.''

There was some land around the four-plexes, so Waitzer's company built 51 three-bedroom apartments on it, which were direly needed in the Wards Corner area, he said. One of the units was converted into an office for Signature Management, Waitzer's management company.

They also renovated the two-bedroom units at that time and added several recreational amenities. ``It's been a very challenging, rewarding job,'' he says. ``They always have an excellent occupancy.''

There's usually a waiting list on the three-bedroom units, says Cami Wright, resident manager. Of the 223 apartments, 160 are two-bedroom, one-bath units and 63 are three-bedroom, two-bath flats. Almost all the units have off-street parking in front of their units, with some parking lots behind the buildings.

``It's a very nice community: real quiet and family- oriented,'' says Wright. ``We have a lot of military families and I've heard nothing but good about the schools.'' Nearby private schools are Norfolk Collegiate and Norfolk Christian.

``Location is a big plus,'' she says. ``We are set back in a very middle-class residential community, yet we're close enough - near Wards Corner - to restaurants, banks, churches, shopping, post office, dry cleaning and easy access to the interstate.''

The apartments have a playground, pool, picnic and volleyball areas and car wash facilities. The vacuum system costs 50 cents to use in the designated parking area; spigot, hose, and water are provided. All residents have to bring is a bucket and sponge, she says.

Other amenities include private first-floor entrances, white European cabinetry with white Roper stove and refrigerator, wall-to-wall carpeting, central air-conditioning, electric cooking and lights, gas for heating and hot water, and a full-size washer and dryer connection.

If tenants don't have their own washer and dryer, they can rent the appliances for $30 per month or use the central laundry facility behind the office. The management also offers storage units for $15 a month.

Residents of the community enjoy front-door mail delivery, dry cleaning pickup and dropoff, concierge services, access to postage, copy and fax machines in the office, and courtesy patrols of off-duty Norfolk police officers.

The courtesy patrols ``make me feel nice and safe,'' says resident Stacey Wagoner, who moved to a two-bedroom apartment in Archer's Green with her 4-year-old daughter, Ashleigh, a little more than a year ago. They moved from Ocean View, choosing Archer's Green for the environment.

``It's a really nice, family-oriented neighborhood with lots of kids,'' she says. ``The neighbors are great - really nice. Everybody gets along and helps each other out.''

Wagoner, a child-care provider for neighborhood children, appreciates the attention the management pays to the buildings and grounds. ``It's kept up really great - any problems and they're right there,'' she says.

Location is another plus, she says. ``It's a really nice neighborhood; everything's close. We can walk to Hannaford's and Hills.'' For fun, Wagoner and her daughter enjoy using the neighborhood's recreational equipment, especially the pool, and travel to the nearby zoo and Northside and Lafayette parks.

Christine and Agustin Gutierrez, a boiler technician in the Navy, transferred from Florida to Archer's Green four years ago and also enjoy the location - close to the Naval base, the prime concern for this relocating couple. They rented a two-bedroom apartment in the area for about three years, before deciding to move into a three-bedroom place.

They searched through The Apartment Book, a free directory, for a neighborhood near the base. Archer's Green was and still is on the cover of the directory. It caught their eye.

``This was the last place we looked,'' said Christine. ``When Cami showed us the two-bedroom unit, we just looked at each other and were like, this is the one, and we signed up the same day. You know when it's the right apartment.''

They liked the smallness of the community. ``We feel more secure here than in the big complexes,'' says Christine, who's expecting their first child in the fall. The community has a very homey feeling, she says. At the suggestion of friends, when their leases expired, they looked at other apartments.

``They just didn't have the same atmosphere,'' she said. ``You know who your neighbors are here.''

There's a pool party and Halloween trick-or-treating and Christmas eggnog at the main office. ``It's real peaceful here,'' Christine says. ``You can walk around on the sidewalks and see people you don't know sitting on their steps, but they'll be like, hi, how ya doin?''

The Gutierrezes also enjoy the well manicured grounds. ``They never look messy,'' she says. And they appreciate that there are designated areas for dogs.

Many military families live in Archer's Green, says Gutierrez. ``You meet a lot of Navy wives and everyone knows what it's like to go through Med cruises, so you help the ones who're just starting out here. Everyone gets to know everyone else by walking around.''

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