Vacant big box holds a prize

The Virginian-Pilot
© April 19, 2009

Virginia Beach has barely made a move toward a light rail line to the Oceanfront. The controversial purchase of the Norfolk Southern right of way isn’t even complete. So why would the City Council be talking about buying property for a light rail station that’s practically light years away?

Because a 3.3-acre tract on Independence Boulevard, just across the tracks from Town Center and with enough room for a rail station and parking, is for sale. And because it’s an excellent investment.

The former Circuit City store is so centrally located that even if the 66-foot-wide right of way isn’t used for a rail line, even if it becomes a dedicated bus lane or a bike path – even if Virginia Beach buys the box store and sells it in a few years – the city should get its money’s worth. Perhaps more.

As The Pilot’s Deirdre Fernandes reported recently, a Dallas-based investment group owns the property, assessed at $5.3 million for tax purposes. After Circuit City closed, commercial real estate manager Gerald Divaris – the man behind Town Center – approached city officials, unsolicited, with a proposal to sell the property for $5 million.

The council hasn’t discussed the plan publicly. But before rejecting the idea, members needs to find out what the property’s worth. In today’s economy, Virginia Beach should be able to work a deal. If it can negotiate a fair price for the property, the city should buy it.

That’s not to suggest that the Beach put the cart before the horse, or the station before the tracks. It still needs the environmental impact study, expected to be complete in a year, that will detail the costs and benefits of light rail, how many people would ride it and its effect on neighborhoods.

If the city decides light rail is in its future, it needs to assess zoning along the 11-mile line to the Oceanfront, determine the types of development most appropriate there and set the standards. In Norfolk, even without that kind of planning, more than $500 million in new development around the rail line is in the works, though the line doesn’t open until next year.

Beach Councilman Jim Wood, a proponent of rail, argues correctly that the city has to think strategically about the future, about ways people will need to move around the region 25 years from now. Virginia Beach’s leaders need to look not just at what the city is now – a sprawling suburb with some commercial districts – but at what is possible, even necessary, for Virginia Beach to thrive as it ages.

A key component of the city’s success will be an integrated transportation system that gets people to work, to colleges and hospitals and to the airport and military bases, not just to entertainment and the Oceanfront.

The Circuit City property could be integral to that system. As a park and ride, a transit center for buses or an elevated rail station with parking below. In the meantime, the property is vacant. If its owners want badly enough to sell, Virginia Beach should make that investment in its future.

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