NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — While a gleaming vision for the transformation of the city’s struggling downtown shopping mall has been revealed, Norfolk’s economic development director is cautioning anyone who is looking for construction barrels anytime soon.
Instead, Sean Washington, who has led the city’s economic development efforts for nearly two years, wants to make clear that the rendering and possibilities shared by Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander at his recent state of the city address are “very much so conceptual” and that there is still “a long road ahead.”
Since late last year, the city has been working with Washington D.C.-based design firm Gensler to come up with future possibilities for the underused MacArthur Center.
The city now owns the 26-acre property after purchasing it out of receivership last year.
As of a year ago, the occupancy rate for the more than one million-square-foot mall was just below 58%. Since then, Dillard’s closed, leaving the mall without a major anchor store.
“Let’s envision a vibrant mixed-use destination where individuals live, work, play, dine, connect, shop and convene,” Alexander said enthusiastically during his speech as Gensler’s bird’s-eye view of downtown took to the screens.
Three new towers, as well as gold-colored roofs with greenery mixed in, are seen where the brick-laden mall currently is.
“The Mid-Atlantic’s most state-of-the-art mixed-use destination will be anchored by a world-class 400-room headquarters hotel honoring the military’s rich history and Norfolk’s role in the conversation of global defense,” Alexander said.
He went onto detail that there would be 518,000-square-feet of high-rise living, offering rental and ownership options and 172,000-square-feet of destination and community-serving retail, accessed by a 2.5-acre pedestrian promenade.
Washington said Gensler did their research to come up with those figures, finding the city needs more hotel rooms to keep up with a 74% increase in occupancy since before the pandemic.
At a recent City Council retreat Washington explained that the city’s downtown receives high marks from convention groups due to its walkability and other amenities.
“We really want to maximize the density on that site,” Washington said. “We really want to determine, how do we get the maximum retail, maximum creative office, maximum hotels, things of that nature. How is that sitting on the site?”
Zeroing in on answering those questions are key, according to Washington, before figuring out who a potential developer might be and how much taxpayers might have to pay to make it all happen.
“So we’re a couple of weeks away from getting that level of data back from Gensler so we can do our next round of analysis with finance,” Washington said.
In the meantime, the mall will continue to be open and managed by S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co.
“But as you can imagine, as we get closer to some potential plans, they will be communicated closely with our tenants just to make sure that there’s a transition in place for them,” Washington said. “There’s definitely going to be some years behind here. But we know we want to get it right.”