Council Approves New Peninsula Town Center
March 14, 2006
On Wednesday, March 8, Hampton City Council approved the Memorandum of Understanding with Hampton Mall Associates for the redevelopment of the Coliseum Mall into the new Peninsula Town Center.
The vision of the Peninsula Town Center is to create a vibrant, mixed-use focal point for the city of Hampton that enhances the community's experience within the urban environment. The concept will include a better integration into the Coliseum Master Plan while using unique architecture and an improved street system to create an exciting user experience.
"With this plan the City is not giving up anything we already have," said Hampton City Manager Jesse T. Wallace, Jr. "Nor are we being asked to provide any up-front investment."
Benefits to Hampton will include:
- Redevelopment of an under performing area and a potential increase in the City's tax base.
- The City's investment will be capped at pledge of a portion of the incremental tax revenues generated by the redevelopment and the cost of demolishing the Mercury Blvd. flyover which has been in the City's plans for a number of years.
- The City will continue to receive base tax revenues and would receive approximately 50 percent of the incremental tax revenues generated by the project.
- The Community Development Authority, recently established by City Council, has the authority to issue bonds to finance the public infrastructure that is part of the Town Center. The City is not responsible for the repayment of CDA bonds.
Once the bonds are issued the project is projected to be substantially finished within 36 months.
The total estimated cost of the project will be approximately $207.5 million of which the developer will contribute a little under $142 million and CDA will account for $65.5 million.
The concept to redevelop the Coliseum Mall into a "Town Center" developed from the formulation of the Coliseum Master Plan. City staff and Urban Design Associates evaluated a wide array of options to redevelop and re-energize Coliseum Mall. It was concluded that the 1970's enclosed Mall configuration was essentially economically obsolete and not the best long-term model to serve as the centerpiece of the retail core of the Coliseum Central District.
Since the decision to move forward with the "Town Center" concept, Mall Properties, Inc. and City staff have been working collaboratively to explore the most appropriate tools available to both the public and private sectors to implement the proposed redevelopment of this strategically important property.
Mall Properties, Inc., owners and managers of the Coliseum Mall, was founded in 1968 and has been engaged in all forms of real estate development with a great emphasis on shopping centers. On this project they are partnering with Steiner and Associates, a firm that is highly respected for its work in converting Malls to Town Centers.