Ambitious Development Proposed For Harbor Park Waterfront

The Pilot is reporting that Drakkar America (sniff, sniff) recently offered an unsolicited $830 million proposal to Norfolk officials that would bring a 23,000-seat arena, Hard Rock casino, marina, and light-rail line to Chesapeake.

Harbor Park Parking Lot

My initial reaction when I read the lead of this story involved a couple of fist pumps because of how badly this prime real estate needs to be developed and this might be the first proposal the public has seen.  However, upon further reading, this is not the right deal.

Everyone wants to see this area developed.  The potential is limitless.  But this company doesn't have much credibility and many of its past proposals to cities including Va Beach and Chesapeake (not to mention its elaborate Waterside proposal last year) have fallen flat.  The article suggests that Virginia Beach officials saw that their arena proposal placed too much risk on the city.  So maybe that's the issue with other cities.

Also, why would they knock down a terrific ballpark and rebuild it a couple hundred yards to the east?  When you step back and take your excitement out of this proposal, that just seems a tad unrealistic.  

Finally, when did casinos become legal in Norfolk?  I know many of us might like to see it, but that's a ton of red tape to go through to get one here in Norfolk and would most likely take a while.  Then throw in the fact that Hard Rock management hasn't even heard of this yet.

While, I do like the idea of a river walk, marina, and light-rail to Chesapeake, this whole proposal seems pie-in-the-sky.  I commend Drakkar for having interest but think they should modify their plan into something more achievable.  If anything, maybe this will spark interest from other investors to re-develop the area.