Jennifer Jiggetts

Virginia Beach Town Center is hot spot for the party set By Jennifer Jiggetts Aug 20, 2010 • Preston Gannaway | The Virginian-Pilot- Patrons line up outside of Guadalajara at Town Center in Virginia Beach on Saturday, July 31, 2010. The area has become a popular spot for nightlife. • Preston Gannaway | The Virginian-Pilot- Damon Holston checks IDs at the door as patrons line up to get into Guadalajara at Town Center in Virginia Beach on Saturday, July 31, 2010. At left, employees Allison Timmons (in white dress) and Mariah Leavitt work the VIP line. The area has become a popular spot for nightlife. VIRGINIA BEACH For night time partiers, there's been downtown Norfolk. And, of course, the Oceanfront. Now, add one more hot spot to the list: Virginia Beach's Town Center. An area built to be Virginia Beach's downtown, the 10-year-old Town Center has a reputation as a family-oriented haven for good food and entertainment. But its restaurants and taverns also have been discovered by bar-hoppers and late-night partiers. Merchants and others theorize that the "party" may be shifting, at least in part, from downtown Norfolk and the Oceanfront to Town Center. Tiffany Giovalei of Virginia Beach made the switch. She was standing in line to get into Guadalajara on a recent Saturday night. Dressed in jeans and heels, the 23-year-old woman said she used to go to Granby Street in Norfolk to party but said the atmosphere felt too young. She now comes out to Town Center to eat and party at least once a month and spends about $50 at California Pizza Kitchen and Guadalajara. "It's more convenient for me because downtown Norfolk is so far," she said. Tax receipts seem to reflect this trend. Virginia Beach has reported a 16 percent gain in tax collections from Town Center that include meal, admissions and hotel taxes for the fiscal year ending in June 2009. Meanwhile, Norfolk's take from food and beverage taxes over the same one-year period declined by about 6 percent in downtown's Granby district and about 14 percent at Waterside Festival Marketplace. Virginia Beach Finance Director Patricia Phillips can't say for certain whether more night-life spending has fueled the increased tax haul from Town Center. But business from there is up. Norfolk has recently chased away or clamped down on several clubs at Waterside and on Granby Street that catered to the young and rowdy. And for a while, light-rail construction made getting around downtown a challenge. In the Beach, the Oceanfront can be a hassle for parking when swarmed with summer tourists. Town Center sits between them in the heart of the state's most populated city. Norfolk shut down the popular Waterside clubs Bar Norfolk and Have a Nice Day Cafe in August of last year because officials said they were troublesome. Norfolk also has been in the process of cleaning up Granby Street's image. The area had a series of shootings in 2009, and one restaurant, Posh Dolche, was closed for violating numerous codes. Norfolk Assistant City Manager Stanley A. Stein said Granby and Waterside's decrease in revenue is part of a business cycle. "I'm sure that there are some young people that have changed their habits, because that's typical," he said. "Almost every 10 years, an entertainment venue needs to redo itself, because it runs out of steam." Night-lifers and business owners cite Town Center's location, easy access to cabs and hotels, and safe and upscale environment as reasons for the boom. Clifton Jordan said he drives from Norfolk to Town Center at least twice a week and spends about $200 on dinner and nightclubs such as the Cheesecake Factory, Red Star Tavern and Guadalajara. "This is kind of like a mini-Atlanta," he said. "The night life in Atlanta is about 10 times bigger than this, but you have to start somewhere." Town Center is composed of 10 blocks of office towers, shops, restaurants and residences that began as a public-private partnership between Virginia Beach and developer Armada Hoffler. Establishments that contribute to Town Center's late night life include Guadalajara, Keagan's Irish Pub, Red Star Tavern and the Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant. Gerald Divaris, chief executive of Divaris Real Estate Inc., helped plan and develop Town Center. When he was recruiting businesses for Town Center, he was thinking of family restaurants. "I didn't think it would morph into a really good night life," he said. Guadalajara, which switches over from a Mexican restaurant to more of a night-life setting at about 10 on weekends, opened its Town Center location in 2007. Allen Fabijan, a spokesman for Guadalajara, said business has increased about 30 percent over last year at the Town Center location because lots of people have been booking parties. One recent party that made national headlines was a 30th birthday bash for NFL quarterback Michael Vick, which resulted in a shooting. Vick was cleared of any involvement in the incident. "I don't think it's had a negative effect on Town Center," Divaris said. "He could've done the same thing at Norfolk or Chesapeake or Philadelphia. It wasn't the place, it was who he was with." Despite the increase in nighttime business, crime has been down at Town Center this year, according to crime statistics for the Town Center area. Robberies dropped from 10 to three. Capt. Steven Smith, who oversees the precinct that includes Town Center, said it's becoming more of a destination. He said he has requested additional officers for Town Center because the population has grown. Town Center also has its own security, but they're not sworn officers, Smith said. Dave Sellers, general manager of Gordon Biersch, said he has seen more traffic in the early evening and night. His sales are up about 4 percent over last year. "We definitely have more customers at night than during the day," Sellers said. "A lot more." Jennifer Jiggetts, -,-